Gary and jeff, thanks for information. It always amazes me how knowledgeable folks are here, though I should be used to it right now. I found Uilleands tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the NAACP embrace the Confederate flag as a way of defusing it's white power mojo to be very interesting, but I would anticipate some protest among the membership. In one of Lenny Bruce's most famous routines, he used the words "spic","kike", and "nigger" to describe members of his audience,and himself. His point was that we invest these words with their negative power,we make weapons of them by hiding them until they can be used in the most hateful possible connotation. If we only brought them out in the fresh air, used them casually, we could defuse them. In theory,I would agree. But the fact is that these words, like the connotation the rebel flag has adopted, have become too loaded to defuse without risk of explosion. For me,even typing the words in this forum causes me concern, but I think that people can follow my point. I believe that it is this power of taboo that lies at the heart of the matter under discussion, and I am thankful that at least here at the Mudcat, the question is open for debate.