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Author
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Topic: The Confederate Flag's Last Stand?
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Pattie Gillett
True Believer
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posted 04-17-2001 01:24 PM
   
Mississippi's voters will decide today whether or not to adopt a new flag which does not feature the Confederate emblem.
Miss, is the last state to still feature the symbol on its flag. What do you think? Will the voters try to keep the old flag? How influential were the media campaigns? Is this something that should even be on a ballot or should Miss. have let the legislature decide, as South Carolina did?For more on the subject click here. Yes, I know this has been discussed elsewhere on this site but we never said we wouldn't be redundant at times. |
Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 04-19-2001 04:28 AM
I dunno. I gotta admit, I'm sorry that Mississippi chose to keep the symbol. I think that's a mistake; I think it symbolizes more than its supporters want to acknowledge it does. But maybe the symbol can somehow be redeemed. I dunno. My brain is about Civil War-ed out right now -- just worked on a major paper -- so maybe I'll have something more intelligent to say on this later. |
Pattie Gillett
True Believer
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posted 04-19-2001 01:08 PM
Current thinking is that this is not over. Miss. may be subject to the same kind of boycotts by the NAACP and others that threatened South Carolina. |
Stephanie
One of the Regulars
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posted 04-19-2001 01:51 PM
While I am in agreement with you Dave, that this flag symbolizes much more than they want to admit, and I understand and agree with the reasons behind possible boycotts, etc., it's just such a complicated issue. As I began typing this I came up with tons of arguments against my initial response. They put this issue to the constiuents and they overwhelmingly voted to keep it on the flag. You can't rule it unconstitutional and the majority has spoken. The moral and ethical response is that the majority is not always right and you need to fight to "make things right." To use the trite argument, slavery was accepted by the majority two hundred years ago and that did not make it right, but the majority is how we rule our country, so until the lobbyists and protesters and decent human beings are able to convince the rest of Miss. that the Confederate symbol should come off the flag, shouldn't it stay on? |
Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 04-19-2001 02:21 PM
Well, I think you've pretty much outlined the reasons why "majority rules" isn't necessarily a justification. We don't put every single decision up for public approval; we elect leaders to make some of those decisions, and we expect them to lead, which can mean making unpopular decisions because they're the right choices to make. I think that this might be an appropriate place for such leadership. And even if it isn't, that doesn't mean we can't argue that the Mississippi voters were wrong to keep the symbol on the flag. I think they were. I just wish I knew how to make them see that. |
Andrew Wester
One of the Regulars
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posted 04-22-2001 09:04 PM
Here is a great cartoon on the subject. Hopefully this link will still be working.
http://webcenter.edivu.aol.com/main.asp?fnum=216 |
Pattie Gillett
True Believer
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posted 04-23-2001 11:55 AM
Interesting connections, there, Andy. One of the reasons this became such an issue for Miss. residents is that pro-flag campaign was very successful in packaging the effort to change the flag as an attack on Southern heritage. The L.A.Times reported that many saw it as an effort to "wipe all things Southern from the planet." I don't think they can separate "Southern" from "Confederate." |
Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 05-05-2001 01:26 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Pattie Gillett:
I don't think they can separate "Southern" from "Confederate."
And that is the thing I will never be able to understand -- that, and why people would believe that if Southern = Confederade, anything Southern would deserve not to be wiped out. (Let me be clear. I don't think Confederate = Southern so I have no problem with the idea of Southern pride any more than I have a problem with the idea of German pride. I think you see where this analogy is going.) The Confederacy may have grown beyond an attempt to preserve slavery if it had remained independent, but it didn't remain independent, so we'll never know. |
Stephanie
One of the Regulars
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posted 05-08-2001 04:37 PM
I saw this article on Salon about the new book "The Wind Done Gone" which is about a female black slave who is Scarlett O'Hara's half-sister. The book takes place the same time as GWTW and has raised copyright and infringement issues with the Margaret Mitchell estate.This article doesn't have to do with the flag issue exactly, but it does go about illustrating the whole southern=confederate equation everyone's talking about.
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/05/02/wind/index.html |
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