BS: Mississippi Flag Vote

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: GUEST,Malcom
Date: 01 May 01 - 11:58 AM

It most certainly IS our fight- it's everyone's business to fight racism, injustice & bad taste. In that order.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: Kim C
Date: 01 May 01 - 01:37 PM

Seeing that the Confederacy was never recognized as an official government by anybody, and that it was only in existence 4 measly years, no, I don't think the battle flag belongs on a state flag, or a statehouse, or any official state or government building. But I don't live in Mississippi, ergo I did not have a chance to vote on it. If they want it, let them have it, and fercryinoutloud let's move on. Simply removing an emblem is not going to get rid of racism, injustice, or bad taste, in that order. It's nothing more than a band-aid. We can either keep putting band-aids on things, or we can try to heal the damn wound. But of course the band-aid approach is easier and people can feel like they're Really Doing Something.

What some people apparently don't understand is this: sometimes the harder you push someone, the harder they resist. Perhaps the people of Mississippi are just damn tired of being pushed by people who don't live there and this is their way of resisting.

I don't know what the answer is. In a country where we espouse the free exchange of ideas and opinions, SOMEONE is going to get their feelings hurt, no matter how diplomatic you try to be. That's just the way it is. Maybe you don't like the way Mississippi voted. But the fact is, they voted, they made a decision. Maybe later on they will vote again and come to a different decision. I don't know.

Perhaps the best place to start is with the person in the mirror.

That's all I have to say on the subject, and I ain't sayin any more. See you in the music threads.

Cheers----- KFC

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: mousethief
Date: 01 May 01 - 01:58 PM

Less a band-aid; removing that flag is more like getting dirt out of the wound. Only when a wound is completely cleaned out can it heal without infection.

Alex

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: GUEST,Allan
Date: 01 May 01 - 02:59 PM

If only the time, effort, rhetoric and expense wasted on keeping this obnoxious symbol flapping in peoples' faces had been applied to something that might actually benefit the citizens of Mississippi- like upgrading their state educational system from number 50 in the nation, for example.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: Banjer
Date: 01 May 01 - 07:40 PM

'obnoxious symbol'? It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 01 May 01 - 08:47 PM

Thank you, Kim C.

khandu

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Flag Vote
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 May 01 - 07:59 PM

I imagine if I was a heritage conscious Mississippian I'd have wanted to go back to the flag that existed at the time the state was established, not stick with something dreamed up by racist politicians in 1894. They didn't have that option on the ballot paper did they?

As for the rest of the world - in England the Confederate flag tends to be identified as meaning Country Music, and gets seen along with the Stars and Stripes. But it probably more popular as a decoration because it is so much prettier, all sparkly, but not as garish as the Union Jack. Not as pretty as the South African one though.

For evidence that the swastika in India could go the same way as the Nazi one, see old editions of Kipling, say from the 1920s, which has it on the cover along with an elephant. It's a real shame the way we mess up attractive symbols so they can't be used without giving people the wrong impression.