TAMPA — Next year, a giant Confederate flag may tower above the tree line near the junction of Interstate 75 and Interstate 4. The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants drivers in the Tampa area to see the massive flag — 30 feet high and 50 feet long — atop a 139-foot pole, the highest the Federal Aviation Authority would allow. It would be lit at night. With the pole already in the ground and building permits in hand, the group is on its way to having what it calls the “world’s largest” Confederate flag in place by mid 2009. The group just needs about $30,000 more, said Douglas Dawson, a division commander. Several nearby business owners don’t mind. It’s history, they say, and it’s on private property.
The county has wrestled with sensitive Confederate issues in the past. In 1994, the Confederate flag was removed from the county seal. Last year, county commissioners recognized Confederate commander Robert E. Lee on the same day they honored a black civic leader. Commissioners later apologized and haven’t since recognized Lee. Flags Across Florida started about eight years ago, after the Confederate flag was removed from the Capitol in Tallahassee. So far the group has two major flags erected: one in Suwannee County along Interstate 75 and one in Havana along U.S. 27.
Adams insists the flag isn’t about racism or slavery. “It’s about honoring our ancestors and about celebrating our heritage,” he said. “It’s a historical thing to us.”
Damn, where’s the Homeowners Association when you need them?
Kinda funny to listen to Progressive Neo-NAZIs Demoncrats talk about terrorism and cowardice, the group doesn’t seem to afraid of the mean old NAZI Progessives, even though the party of peace want’s to lynch them for free speech.
Doublespeak Demoncrats at their best, it’s their way or death, ha like they would have the nerve to do their own dirty work.
Yep, it’s Northern Aggression, which refers to the fact that it was mostly Norther forces which attacked the South. And it wasn’t about slavery but the Union staying whole. You really need to read history books and not listen to the propaganda from ignorant Progressive NAZI teachers. You just might read about the anti-black riots in the North when they thought they would have to serve with them or the anti-war riots concerning the draft. You could also read about the anti-black laws the north had at the same time. Face it, it was Northern Shippers that brought the slave into the US, and if anyone is really guilty it’s the slave pushers. The ones that really profited from the slavery trade.
Bigoted hypocrites are all the little Progressive NEO-NAZIs leftist Demoncrats are, brainwashed into one train of thought never to question their masters and always trying to sound righteous while killing unborn babies.
#31, Redneck;
I never said I wouldn’t allow you to fly the Confederate flag. Indeed, I would fight for your right to do so.
But that doesn’t mean you’re not an idiot.
>>Bigoted hypocrites … Progressive NEO-NAZIs leftist Demoncrats … never to question their masters … while killing unborn babies.
Jesus H. Christ. Have you been hitting the moonshine again, Traaxx? I’m going to send the revenuers out yer way.
kind of disappointing that out of all the responses only one other seems to show any sort of understanding about the civil war. err… the war of northern agression.
I would like to add, and speaking for my ancestors, if we’d known it’d be this much trouble, we’d have picked our damn cotton.
Besides, it’s evident that most of you received you education regarding the south from the dukes of hazard, since the flags shown are not examples of THE confederate flag. Additionally, there is no hazard county in Georgia, and we do have paved roads.
Anyhoo, i’m a gonna go sit a spell with the family. Y’all come back ya hear?
#22–Mustard. Well done.
#25–HMyers==“why do poor white trash think it was honorable to fight and die so that rich white cotton growers could keep blacks and poor white trash in slavery/poverty?” // I don’t see any answer in calling this desire to eat shit “culture.” Please take 1-2 sentences and just explain it a bit. It is honorable to fight and die to make people free—not to keep them in chains. What does my Northern Culture have wrong?
#34–elvis==you seem to imply it was overt aggressive ignorance that could only be born of incest? That must indeed explain a lot of it.
#34;
Yes, technically the war was about keeping the Union whole.
But we all know the reason why the South seceded: slavery.
And if my memory serves me correctly, wasn’t it the South that attacked first?
#11, 12
If slavery was the issue, then why were there 4 slave states that didn’t secede?
Also, if the South hadn’t seceded, then there was no threat to slavery, as they were enough in number to prevent a constitutional amendment, dominated the Democratic Party which was running Congress, and had the Supreme Court on their side with activist judges inventing a right to slavery.
Some people consider it to be just a battle flag representing heroism and sacrifice. Others see it as a symbol of racism, and object to its being flown. Why should the latter group’s views be considered given that you thought Michelle Malkin was absurd for complaining about Rachael Ray’s scarf reminding people of Arafat?
Agreed that the Dukes of Hazzard is a great show, with terrific actors.
#38–Mike==heroism and sacrifice for what end?
These guys are idiots. That’s the confederate battle flag, not the flag of the Confederated States of America. The level of stupidity here would be comical if they weren’t nasty bigots.
#34 And if my memory serves me correctly, wasn’t it the South that attacked first?
Depends on how you look at it. South Carolina troops fired on Fort Sumter which is located in Charleston, South Carolina’s harbor. Not exactly like they shelled New York.
Had South Carolina just blockaded the fort, starving the US troops off of the island the world would be very different today.
Bobbo, towards winning the war.
Using the battle flag makes more sense, as they are honoring veterans with the flag.
#43–Mike==yes, winning the war==but towards what end? what goal? The war was to support what philosophical position that was worthy of poor white trash dying?
How about independence? Right now America has troops in the field supporting people’s seceding from a larger country(Bosnia, Kosovo). Regardless of the end, isn’t the battle good enough? Most of the people acting in reenactments don’t support the Confederate cause, but the troops.
As for a philosophical position, I’ve already pointed out that slavery wasn’t the answer since 15 slave states is enough to block an amendment today. A more likely answer is trade. The south was free traders and being hit hard by the north’s desire for protectionism which was bringing in retaliatory tariffs and cutting sales.
Not as interesting as slavery, but here the North had the power to make the change happen.
Florida’s finest.
#45–Mike===”Regardless of the end, isn’t the battle good enough?” == No.
#45–Mike===”Most of the people acting in reenactments don’t support the Confederate cause, but the troops.” //// Yep.
It is a symbol of open rebellion to the republic. The flag of traitors.
We should all remember that is what it stands for.
Cursor_
#38;
See #32.
I seem to be the only one here who thinks this was about states rights. A battle we are still fighting about. Can you marry in some states and not others can you get drugs to relieve pain in some states and not others. Personally with the level of debt most of us have we are not to far from indentured slaves now.
>>given that you thought Michelle Malkin was
>>absurd for complaining about Rachael Ray’s
>>scarf reminding people of Arafat?
Aw, come on, Lyin Mike! Even YOU can’t be dense enough to draw a parallel between the two. Malkin went beyond absurd…she was asinine, rabid, spittle-flecked, shameful, and senseless. Only someone who imagines the ghost of Yasser Arafat is under here bed waiting to bite her ankles could EVER see a keffiyeh in that fringy, foofie, paisley scarf Rachel Ray was wearing.
If she had been wearing a t-shirt with a Palestinian flag on it, OK. But a paisley scarf?
I looked at somee pictures of Yasser with his head-dress, and I don’t see a resemblance. Not even close.
[Spittle-flecked? Har! – ed.]
Ironically, these ‘folks’ who are so rabid about their history are a lot like the ones who threatened the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum because they flew/fly the Mexican flag (below the U.S. flag) on their flagpole. The Sonoran Desert BTW extends from southern Arizona into northern Mexico.
J/P=?
Bobbo, I think there’s a disconnect here. Many people show the Confed flag as a symbol of racism, but for other people, the fighting of the soldiers is the primary thing they associate with the Confederacy and that flag. The way they fought against overwhelming odds is itself noble.
54: Yes, the battle flag was associated with Confederate military troops (as someone else said, mostly poor white trash dying so the plantation owners could keep their slaves). It was not the flag of the CSA, but that of the Confederate military.
Those same poor whites (with the encouragement of former CSA general Nation Bedford Forrest IIRC) later turned the battle flag into a KKK symbol and used it and cross burning and the stupid costumes to terrify and lynch blacks. Hence the battle flag is now associated with bigotry, not nobility.
If I were black and lived in Tampa, I’d consider either suing to keep the flag from being displayed, or leaving that area.
Southerners and their inbred extended families got us into the whole Iraq-middle east nightmare. Never forget this. Time to nuke the South. I’m talking strategic nukes against Chattanooga, Jacksonville, Savannah, Raleigh, Baton Rouge, Little Rock. Never too late to finish the Civil War.
Both sides of this argument is populated with ignorant assholes. Read your history folks.
The civil war wasn’t about freeing slaves from slavery out of compassion, it was transferring workers to northern mills.. Slaves weren’t brought to this country on ships flying the American flag, but the flag of Spain.. Long before the USA existed.. Slaves in the south were treated much better than they were in the north as freemen.. Think about it, your car is a tool and you take good care of it.. Slaves were tools. Even after they went north as freemen.
#31, traax,
You never were too bright.
Kinda funny to listen to Progressive Neo-NAZIs Demoncrats talk … even though the party of peace want’s to lynch them for free speech.
Who wants to stop their “free speech” rights. Your right to free speech does not preclude the rest of the world from suggesting you are a fucking idiot.
Doublespeak Demoncrats at their best, it’s their way or death, ha like they would have the nerve to do their own dirty work.
I don’t know why you think this is a Democrat issue. And what “dirty work?”
Yep, it’s Northern Aggression, which refers to the fact that it was mostly Norther forces which attacked the South.
It was war. The North had asked the South to surrender but was refused. Their next course was to go get the murderous sons of bitches the hard way.
And it wasn’t about slavery but the Union staying whole. You really need to read history books and not listen to the propaganda from ignorant Progressive NAZI teachers.
Oh, but it was about slavery. If YOU had read some history you would realize that the one difference between the North and South was the slavery question. Everything revolved around that.
The mood of most Americans was that slavery and bondage was wrong. Excepting the South. The South built slavery into their culture so deeply that everything political touched on slavery. There was no getting away from it.
You just might read about the anti-black riots in the North when they thought they would have to serve with them or the anti-war riots concerning the draft.
You might go back and re-read some of that history. Most of the rioters were immigrants (Irish) who had no attachment with America and those who had already done their bit and were being drafted. The draft was not uniform and easily evaded if you had money.
Face it, it was Northern Shippers that brought the slave into the US, and if anyone is really guilty it’s the slave pushers. The ones that really profited from the slavery trade.
Wrong again. The importation of African slaves was abolished in the US in 1808. Any slaves entering the US were Cuban slaves smuggled in. Internationally the slave trade was stopped in 1833 by the British Navy and assisted by the American and French Navies.
Bigoted hypocrites are all the little Progressive NEO-NAZIs leftist Demoncrats are, brainwashed into one train of thought never to question their masters and always trying to sound righteous while killing unborn babies.
OK, and your point is?
I freed the what?
This flag is the flag i will fly and for the people that think it was wrong to fly it can talk to my friends that are black and fly the same flag in there yard!!!It is not a racal flag but a flag of honor!!!