ISSUE: Sen. Ford's holiday proposal

OUR VIEW: Timing may doom proposal to make MLK and Confederate days mandatory holidays

07 Feb. 2009: Some will say Sen. Robert Ford is playing politics with his proposal to make both Confederate Memorial Day and Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday mandatory state holidays. The Charleston senator has stated his intention of seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2010. Courting an expanded base of votes is natural.

Politics or not, Ford's proposal and his reasoning are sound. The timing, however, is bad. Ford was in the Senate when the MLK holiday was approved in 1998. He fought for it -- and approved of the present plan that allows localities to choose between King Day and Confederate Memorial Day as holidays.

It's not hard to see how the concept of unity went out the window by allowing local choice. The idea was to get people to appreciate the meaning of both days - not pick based on old biases.

"I'm tired of all the bickering and the hatred and the fighting we do in South Carolina," Ford told The Post and Courier of Charleston. "A black person needs to know what a white person goes through in South Carolina and vice versa. If you're born in South Carolina, it's your history too. We need to know what made Southern whites do what they did, secede from the Union and fight a four-year, bloody war."

The holiday issue was made worse with the Confederate flag battle that led to a legislative compromise to remove the banner from the Statehouse dome and locate it on the capital grounds. Ford fought for removal of the flag but today is an African-American lawmaker who attends observances of the May 10 Confederate Memorial Day.

He has the credentials to make such a proposal about the holidays. And he also has the support of a key player, Senate leader Glenn McConnell, a Charleston lawmaker who is a Confederate re-enactor and avowed supporter of maintaining the presence of the Confederate banner and other Southern remembrances.

"We're trying to get the holidays to mean something. If political subdivisions of the state are picking and choosing, it's not a state holiday. When they pick and choose, there's a silent message there and that creates resentment and misunderstanding," McConnell told the Charleston newspaper. "We need to get beyond that. I mean, the whole idea (of the holidays) was to bring people together."

Would that the result unite people in understanding, but anyone who remembers the battles over the holidays and the continuing fuss over the Confederate flag knows there is little in the way of middle ground among those adamant about their position. These are the people who make the noise that fosters the continuing battles.

A majority of South Carolinians would be OK with the Confederate battle flag fight going away. It's not a priority in 2009 with all the other issues facing South Carolina.

As for the holidays, most might say it makes sense to observe both if the idea is to have everyone take notice. Picking and choosing indeed fosters division along lines where the divide is already wide.

The biggest obstacle is money. A state that is struggling now does not need another paid holiday. The timing is not right.

Yet with McConnell's support, Ford and others may make it happen. There might be surprising unity to be found among lawmakers.

It is heartwarming to see a black politician anywhere advocate a Confederate Memorial Day.

http://thetandd.com/articles/2009/02/06/opinion/13495379.prt

Hey Y'all, Is the Southern Drawl Spreading?

Atlanta, GA (Sept. 22, 2007) -- True story: A North Carolina teacher gave an example to his class of a statement by the school's football coach: "I'll be done drove there by 3 o'clock." Now, the teacher said, give the correct future perfect tense of that sentence. A boy's hand shot up. "I'll be done drive," he said proudly.

Borne out in grammatical and metaphorical mazes, talkin' Southern -- or talkin' country -- is the cadence of Atticus Finch and Andy Griffith, presidents and preachers, ballplayers and businessmen in Brooks Brothers suits. To many Americans, it's also the lingua franca of honky-tonk pluckers, bumpkins, rascals and hicks.

Yet in an urbanized America drawn ever closer by high-speed communications and swirling migrations, a quiet debate is now surfacing among linguists -- in all kinds of English -- about whether Southern talk is spreading or becoming as quaintly provincial as a coon hunt.

Some believe that the Southern drawl has expanded to the point where, arguably, more than half of all Americans now glide their diphthongs and hush their Rs like modern-day Rhett Butlers. Some professionals who travel around even adopt different regional dialects as they go, knowing it's one of the best ways to get ahead.

But other experts believe mass communications and urbanization are cutting away at the distinctiveness of the Southern voice, resulting in a more mono-pitch America.

John Fought is in the expanding camp. The linguist from Diamond Bar, Calif., points to several factors leading to the growing use of "y'all," "fixin' to" and other dialectical Dixie quirks: the migration of Northerners to the South, the link between notions of masculinity and language, the appeal of country roots, and the influence of cultural phenomena like NASCAR.

"The boundary for Southern speech actually has spread," says Fought. "And we're seeing fairly large fingers and puddles of more or less Southern speech north of the Ohio River and West of the Mississippi into the Plains."

Other linguists aren't so sure, noting that locale doesn't always dictate dialect. Indeed, Erik Thomas, a vowel expert at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, says research shows that mainstream English, otherwise known as American Standard, is actually nibbling away at both the borders and the urban core of the South.

In the North, new words, slang, and speech patterns tend to hopscotch from city to city and then spread into rural areas. In the South, that phenomenon is reversed: Speech patterns tend to trickle from the country to the city. Signs today, however, suggest that the drawl is coming up against a wall in expatriate hot spots like Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; and Charlotte, N.C.

"Northerners still make fun of Southern speech," says Dennis Preston, a linguist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. "To them, it stirs up images of sitting out in a cabin, polishing a gun, and scratching a hound dog." With that in mind, he adds, "Southern speech is certainly not spreading. It's enormously resisted in the South by those who would give them the biggest numbers" -- newcomers from the North.

In many ways, the argument over the pervasiveness of Southern-speak centers on whether to count African-American vernacular as part of it (most experts do) and what to do about the pockets of Southern talkers north of the Ohio River. Ypsilanti, Mich., for instance, is sometimes called Ypsitucky because of all the Kentucky expats.

An additional problem is how to define Southern-speak. The classic drawl, though native mostly to Daughters of the Confederacy, is somewhat of a misnomer. In fact, pronunciation, syllable beats, and vocabulary define Southern speech more than speed. It turns out that the average Southerner, research shows, gets to the end of a sentence just as fast as a New Hampshirite.

One wild card in the argument over the spread of Southern talk is the "bidialectical" -- a breed of people of unknown numbers who speak different dialects, often depending on who they're with. Are they evidence of "y'all" creep or just poseurs? Preston is one of them, quickly switching from his Kentucky hill country twang to what he calls "midlands speech" at Michigan state when he crosses the Ohio. He still, however, says "pin" for "pen" no matter where he eats his grapefruit or grits.

To speak "true Southern," a person has to be able to master several things, according to linguists Guy Bailey (chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City) and Jan Tillery. These include everything from vocabulary (such as "snap bean" and "redbug") to upgliding diphthongs ("dawg" for "dog") to dropping the "R" in words ("foty" for "forty").

"These changes are both idiosyncratic and social," says Preston. "There seem to be personal characteristics that allow the dialect shift, including gregariousness and the ability to do it."

Interestingly, mobile professionals switch between accents more often than other groups, apparently believing that success is dependent on dialect. Moreover, the mastery of language is deeply personal and even gender-biased. When a couple moves south, for example, it's much more likely that the man will acquire Southern speech than the woman. Conversely, when a Southern couple moves north, the woman is more likely to adapt her accent.

Some researchers, at least those from the South, believe that this has to do with the masculinity associated with country talk. Some Southern men grow up thinking that Northern dialects are for "sissies."

But often it's the capability of, and interest in, verbal dexterity that really accounts for bidialecticals. "There are people who ... could take a car trip to Texas from Minnesota without picking up anything," says Fought. "Other people can't help it. They just soak it up as they pass by."

Thomas Wikle, a geography professor at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, has a father-in-law in Athens, Ga., who is aware of his accent around the local college campus, but falls into an almost incomprehensible brogue when talking to his farmer buddies out his truck window. That self-conscious instinct to suppress country talk in respectable company is a testament to the power of dialects, and that accent can, and often does, account for social status.

Unlike bilinguals, bidialectals tend not to brag about their abilities. "If I'm around my friends in Oklahoma, I don't even think about saying 'y'all,' but when I go back home to California and it slips out, someone usually gives me a funny look," says Wikle.

Today, the historic separation between North and South is less important than rural and urban differences. The debate over the use of Southern speech, at the very least, shows the importance of how people talk when they're at home.

"You get into identity features, which are really crucial in determining whether someone retains or loses an accent," says Thomas at NCSU. "That's why in rural areas of the South, Southern features are still pretty strong. All this identity with Southernness -- what type of music you listen to, the sports you watch on TV, what kind of food you eat -- it's prestigious to you and your friends to identify with sounding country."

Well, when I visit family up north I not only keep my Southern drawl but I tend to make it stronger and more pronounced and I don't give a rat's a** what they think about it. If they don't like it they can kiss my grits.

School bans shirts supporting Six black racists

Jena, La. Aug 29, 2007 - Officials at a central Louisiana high school have banned T-shirts supporting six black students accused of beating of a white schoolmate, saying the shirts are too disruptive.

About nine students at Jena High School wore the “Free the Jena 6” T-shirts Tuesday, and the slogan caused too much of a stir on campus, said LaSalle Parish Schools Superintendent Roy Breithaupt said.

John Jenkins said his three daughters wore the shirts to make a statement, not to cause trouble.

“They weren’t doing anything other than wearing the shirts,” Jenkins said. “The school doesn’t have a dress code. They were covered. They’re trying to tell them what they can and can’t wear.”

His son, Carwin Jones, is one of the six students charged with attempted murder in the December 2006 beating of 18-year-old Justin Barker. Barker was treated for a swollen and cut face and released the same day.

The attempted murder charges sparked outrage in the black community and drew attention from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is now monitoring the cases. The Rev. Al Sharpton has also spoken up for the six students, saying the attempted-murder charges indicate a different standard of justice for blacks and whites.

One of the students, Mychal Bell, 17, was convicted on a reduced charge of aggravated second-degree battery and faces up to 22 years in prison. He had initially faced attempted murder charges. The other five teens are awaiting trial on attempted murder and conspiracy charges.

Racial tensions surfaced in Jena — a town of 2,900 with about 350 black residents — last fall, when students at the high school found three nooses hanging from a tree on campus. Three white students were suspended, but no criminal charges were filed.

The lying racist pig Al Sharpton knows full well that if it were six whites who did this to a black student they would be charged with attempted murder and not only that, there would have been hundreds if not thousands of blacks out in the streets either demonstrating, rioting or both and the ACLU would have had a dozen lawyers there also. Could you image the outcry if white students wore tee shirts supporting six whites who viciously beat a black. The ACLU is monitoring the banning of tee shirts but where were they when the white student was beaten half to death? Does the ACLU monitor the banning of Confederate tee shirts in schools? If there is a different standard of justice for blacks and whites then it favors blacks....too often black attacks on whites have not been reported as RACISTS. Racism stinks just as bad when it comes from blacks as it does when it comes from Whites or Hispanics.

Folk Song Angers Parents, NAACP in Michigan

November 14, 2005

BERKLEY, Mich. - A black parent and the NAACP are criticizing a middle school's decision to perform a song that they say glorifies slavery.

The song, "Pick a Bale of Cotton," is on the folk music choir program Wednesday at predominantly white Anderson Middle School in the Berkley School District.

The song's lyrics include, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh, Lordie, pick a bale a day."

Greg Montgomery told The Detroit News that he complained to school officials, and when he was dissatisfied with their response, decided to pull his 11-year-old daughter, China, from singing.

"It's mind-boggling that people don't understand sensitive issues," he said.

China said: "They were bringing back the memories of how African-Americans picked cotton, and it wasn't a good memory. It was disrespectful to African-Americans."

Berkley schools spokeswoman Gwen Ahern said district officials would consider the song's origin and decide whether to leave it in the concert program. She also defended the choice.

"We used to sing that song when I was in school during the '50s," she said. "It's like a Southern type of folk song. I remember it being perky. It was more of a song that people just sang for fun."

The NAACP is once again over-reacting and lying through their Commie teeth. The song brings back memories of the slavery days for colored, black, negro, Afro-Americans, African-Americans and they don't like that, yet on the other hand the NAACP supports the U.S. Slavery Museum so people will be reminded of the days when African-Americans were slaves. What a bunch of hypocrits.

Ten years later, Quebec again flirts with Independence

Sat. Oct 29, 2005

Ten years after a referendum failed to break up Canada, independence advocates of the French-speaking province of Quebec are vowing to try again to win their sovereignty.

With support for Quebec independence climbing as high as 56 percent this year, according to the polling firm CROP in Montreal, the Parti Quebecois, the principal force behind the separatist movement, hopes to quickly call another referendum if the party regains power in the next provincial election, expected in 2007.

All nine candidates hoping to lead the Parti Quebecois, which has been in opposition since 2003, have declared their support for a new referendum.

Ten years ago, on October 30, 1995, Quebec nationalists came within a hair of realizing their dream of independence when they captured 49.4 percent support in a vote to separate from Canada, versus 50.6 percent who favored preserving Canadian unity.

The two camps were only 54,000 votes apart.

That shot across Canada's bow came so close that the federal government immediately launched a campaign to woo back the hearts of Quebecers. But those efforts backfired and resulted in what some say is the biggest political scandal in Canadian history.

The rebel province was inundated with Canadian symbols such as its maple leaf flag, but the campaign was marred by allegations that advertising firms who received taxpayer money to promote federalism gave 100 million Canadian dollars (85 million dollars) in kickbacks to the Liberal Party.

"After 1995, instead of really reforming the country to satisfy Quebecers' desire for some autonomy, Canada spent vast sums of money to expunge Quebecers' identity," said Jean-Francois Lisee, a former advisor to Jacques Parizeau, the premiere of Quebec during the 1995 referendum.

Pundits say the rise in separatist sentiment is a direct result of the sponsorship scandal, whose consequences have not yet been fully felt as a judicial inquiry investigating the matter is set to report Tuesday.

The Parti Quebecois is now benefiting from the Liberal Party's declining popularity both in Ottawa and in Quebec, although the Liberals still control both the federal and provincial parliaments.

And even Quebec federalists do not hide their desire for more provincial autonomy.

"The challenge for federalist politicians today is to find a way to accommodate Quebec's unique character within the Canadian federation," said Quebec Liberal minister Benoit Pelletier.

Many of Quebec's 7.6 million people still feel uncomfortable as part of Canada, a country of 32 million mostly Anglophones who refuse, Quebecers say, to recognize their province as a distinct society with its roots in French culture.

Pro-independence sentiment has risen with the support of younger generations of Quebecers, while older generations who are often more sympathetic towards Canada are beginning to fade away, according to a recent study by sociologists Simon Langlois and Gilles Gagne of Laval University in Quebec.

Ironically, young Canadians outside Quebec are also emboldened by a sense of pride in their regions. Western Canadians, for example, have recently begun asserting their own growing political clout within the federation.

Elsie Lefebvre, 26, a Parti Quebecois member of the provincial legislative assembly, said her generation is motivated by a desire for their own country in order simply to have more control over their own destiny.

"For my generation, sovereignty is not anti-Canada, but pro-Quebec, in contrast to past campaigns," Lefebvre said.

"Canada is a beautiful country, but it is not mine," she said.

Why Do The Neo-Conservatives Hate Dixie So?

By Patrick J. Buchanan
November 26, 2003

"Howard Dean wants the white trash vote," wrote Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer in recent mockery of the Vermonter. "That's clearly what [Dean] meant when he said he wanted the votes of 'guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.'"

After Dean was savaged by Al Sharpton, who called the Confederate flag an "American swastika," Krauthammer was rhapsodic. His humiliation serves Dean right, Krauthammer chortled. He should never have pandered to Southern "yahoos" and "rebel-yelling racist redneck(s)."

What is it in the wiring of these neocons that they so loathe white Southerners who cherish the monuments, men and memories of the Lost Cause?

Last December, Krauthammer, David Frum and Jonah Goldberg all squabbled noisily over who was first to join the media mob that lynched Trent Lott for his tribute to Sen. Thurmond on Strom's 100th birthday. When Lott lost his leadership post, these neocons rejoiced at his resignation.

In the latest National Review – not your father's NR – an editorial calls the cause of Southern independence, for which Gen. Robert E. Lee fought and "Stonewall" Jackson died, the cause of "slavery and treason."

Why the Hollywood Left hates Dixie is easy to understand. It is conservative, Christian, traditionalist, hostile to the cultural revolution. But why do the neocons? After all, the folks Krauthammer calls "white trash" are the most reliable conservative voters in America, God-and-country people. They enlist in disproportionate numbers in the military, and die in disproportionate numbers in America's wars.

The neocons are pro-Israel. So, too, are these folks who believe in standing by Israel because the Bible tells them so. Yet, when it comes to Southerners who revere the Confederate flag, neocons like Krauthammer echo the Washington Post writer who dismissed Southern white Christians as "poor, uneducated and easy to command."

But even the Post does not use the venom of Krauthammer. Indeed, I never heard George Wallace or Lester Maddox, both of whom I came to know and like late in their lives, use the kind of language on political foes that Krauthammer uses on a whole class of people he doesn't even know.

A point of personal privilege. I have family roots in the South, in Mississippi. When the Civil War came, Cyrus Baldwin enlisted and did not survive Vicksburg. William Buchanan of Okolona, who would marry Baldwin's daughter, fought at Atlanta and was captured by Gen. Sherman's army. William Baldwin Buchanan was the name given to my father and by him to my late brother.

As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, I have been to their gatherings. I spoke at the 2001 SCV convention in Lafayette, La. The Military Order of the Stars and Bars presented me with a battle flag and a wooden canteen like the ones my ancestors carried.

Has Krauthammer ever been to one of these meetings? Has he any knowledge at all of these people he dismisses as "white trash"?

Discussing the Dean-flag issue, one New York Times columnist wrote of the campaign "to remove the Stars and Bars from the top of the South Carolina Statehouse." But it was not the Stars and Bars, first flag of the Confederate States of America, that flew over that statehouse. It was the battle flag of the Confederate army, with the St. Andrew's Cross, on which, tradition holds, the apostle Andrew was crucified.

And that flag atop the statehouse flew beneath Old Glory. What were South Carolinians saying by putting it there? Only this: "We are proud of the bravery of our grandfathers who fought under this blood-stained banner, but we are Americans, and the Stars and Stripes represents our country now and forever." What is wrong with that?

To Krauthammer, the battle flag is a racist symbol. And, yes, it has been used by racists to insult and intimidate. But so, too, has the Christian cross when burned on hillsides. And so, too, has the American flag.

These symbols are abused because they have power. But to Southern kids who put battle flag decals on book bags, their fathers who put replicas on cars and trucks, rural folks who fly the flag in their yards, it does not mean they hate anyone. Rather, it says: "We love our Southern heritage and shall never forget our ancestors who fought and died under this flag."

Late in life, Joshua Chamberlain, the Union hero who won the Medal of Honor for holding Little Round Top when Lee sent the Texans to turn Meade's flank on the second day at Gettysburg, said that whenever he saw that flag, it recalled to him the indomitable courage of the men who had fought under it. At re-enactments of Civil War battles, high-school football games and NASCAR races, the battle flag is ubiquitous across the South.

If Krauthammer and the neocons really believe the only folks who cherish this symbol are "white trash" and "yahoos," that tells us more about them than it does about the South, of which they know nothing.

New equality law to drop the word 'homosexual'

By Paul Waugh

United Kingdom. 25 November 2002
http://www.independent.co.uk/

It was, famously, the love that dared not speak its name. Now the word "homosexual" is to disappear altogether as part of a new government drive to promote equality in the workplace.

After complaints from groups that found the word offensive and outdated, Barbara Roche, the Equalities minister, has decided it should be replaced in forthcoming anti-discrimination legislation.

Draft regulations, which are certain to become law by December 2003, instead use the phrase "orientation towards people of the same sex" to define gays and lesbians. The new law will for the first time make it illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee or prospective employee on the ground of sexuality.

The issue first arose when the minister asked for opinions on her plans to protect people who were discriminated at work because of their "homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual" nature. Gay lobby groups, trade unions and others objected to the word "homosexual" and called instead for a wider definition of "sexual orientation" that would encompass every group in society.

Mrs. Roche told The Independent: "It's not about political correctness. You are actually making a statement that these issues have moved on."
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"The Confederate flag is offensive and outdated...it's time for us to move on" Do these terms sound familiar? They should, it's all part of the New World Order / New Left program to eliminate Christian morality and Christian symbols. Now these Orwellian nazis want to eliminate words from our language? What does one expect from a country that just last year lowered the age to 16 yrs. old, for boys to have sex with homo-men.

Will Georgia Get Their Rightful Flag Back?

There are people in Georgia who tend to think that Governor elect Perdue is trying to get out of his campaign promise to allow the good citizens of Georgia to vote on which flag they want to have as their state banner. That remains to be seen but, now some politicians, weeks after the election, are trying to get us to believe that the flag had nothing to do with Sonny Perdue getting elected. Below is what the New York Times had to say on election day.....

An Old Battle Flag Helps Bring Down a Governor

By JEFFREY GETTLEMANNY Times, Nov 7, 02

ATLANTA, Nov. 6 - It was a hidden grudge, so private, apparently, that no polls picked it up.

Last year Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, led a successful effort to change Georgia's state flag, which then prominently featured the Confederate battle cross.

This Tuesday, he paid the price.

In their first chance to vent their anger, white voters in rural areas turned out in record numbers to vote out Mr. Barnes in one of the most stunning upsets this year. The governor had been considered one of the brightest lights in the Democratic Party, a gifted speaker, moderate, strong on education and a possible contender for vice president or even president.

Much of the state's Democratic leadership was swept out on Tuesday, after a campaign that featured frequent visits for Republican candidates by President Bush and harsh advertisements against Senator Max Cleland, a Democrat seeking a second term.

But the governor's defeat was the biggest surprise of the night here, and in the morning-after search for answers, the flag issue surfaced as a leading explanation.

"There was this huge undercurrent of resentment and anger about the flag, but I think we all missed it because it's not something people discuss in the open," said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. "The Confederate flag is still a very powerful symbol. A lot of white voters felt Barnes was not on their side when he pushed to change it."

The rural white voting base was mobilized this year as never before, but it did not simply follow Republican marching orders. What happened was more personal than that. While the governor lost badly in rural counties like Floyd and Colquitt, his Democratic partner, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, won there, showing that voters were angry not at all Democrats but certainly at Mr. Barnes.

"The flag was definitely part of the equation," said another Georgia Democrat, Senator Zell Miller. "I could spend all day and all evening trying to explain why this is such an emotional issue. It just is."

Though the state banner is not the only reason Democrats were routed in Georgia, it is part of a basket of problems the party faces here.

Democrats are seen as out of touch with the state's conservative values. Georgia, with its 11 major military bases, its large rural areas and its Deep South traditions, proved in 2000 that it was solid Bush country. Once again on Tuesday, it went heavily Republican.

Another upset was the defeat of Senator Cleland, a decorated Vietnam veteran, to his Republican challenger, Representative Saxby Chambliss. The Democratic speaker of the Georgia House, Tom Murphy, who had held his seat for 41 years, also lost, as did a Democratic candidate in a new Congressional district that had been gerrymandered by the Democratic-controlled legislature to produce a Democratic representative.

"This was a train that has been coming down the track for the past 10 years," Senator Miller said. "Georgia is not the solid Democratic state it was in the past. It's very competitive. The Republicans did a masterful job of energizing their base."

One of Mr. Perdue's campaign promises was to have a referendum on the state flag, resurrecting a matter that dated from January of 2001, when Governor Barnes, intervening in a longtime battle, pushed for a new flag design.

Georgia had remained one of the last Southern states to feature the Confederate battle cross on their flags. Blacks said the flag was racist, but many whites said it spoke to their heritage. Mr. Barnes stepped into the middle of the controversy with a proposal to shrink the symbol to a small box at the bottom of the flag.

The legislature quickly approved the compromise, but the move infuriated many white voters across the state, who turned against the governor on Tuesday. In rural Worth County, Mr. Barnes won 57 percent of the vote when he ran for governor in 1998; this year he scored 45 percent. In another rural county, Laurens, he won 60 percent four years ago; this year it was 39 percent. In all, Mr. Barnes won just 46 percent of the statewide vote, against 52 percent for Mr. Perdue.

Asked whether it could have been the governor's progressive education plans, or perhaps his close ties to the black leadership of Atlanta, William Boone, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University, said he did not think so. "The flag dragged Barnes down," Dr. Boone said. "He was one of the most progressive governors in the South. Now he's gone." And along with the Southern Phalange and all other Southern Patriots we say good riddance to these traitors of the South.

NAACP Plans Sanctions Against Crestview To Protest Rebel Flag

Local NAACP official says the group is planning protests and economic sanctions against this Florida Panhandle city for refusing to haul down the Confederate battle flag and obeying their will.

It flies over a memorial to William "Uncle Bill" Lundy, Florida's last surviving Civil War veteran. He died in 1957. Crestview's city council Monday unanimously reaffirmed a decision to keep the rebel banner flying.

The council rejected a compromise offered by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to put the flag in a shadow box at the memorial, or take it down and present it to Lundy's family. "If the city doesn't respect the feelings of some people, some people ought not to respect the feelings of the city," said local NAACP chapter president Sabu Williams. Williams said he would seek national NAACP support for protests and avoidance of certain Crestview businesses although he insisted that would not constitute a boycott.

The banner was removed from South Carolina's statehouse dome two years ago, but the NAACP has continued a boycott there because it was moved to a nearby Confederate monument and the NAACP doesn't want it there. The NAACP feels that the eradication of pro-Southern symbols are more important than social issues in black neighbourhoods and slavery in the Sudan. "Our will is our revenge against the South for past injustices" said Leroy Johnson, spokesman for the NAACP.

Flag opponents contend it is a symbol of slavery and racial hatred, while supporters say it is part of their Southern heritage. "We believe the flag should be lowered in such a way that respects a veteran," Williams told the council in front of a packed meeting room.

Sam Hayes, the council's only black member, then delivered an impassioned speech to keep the banner flying. Wearing his Army uniform, the veteran of three wars pulled out his tattered brown and tan Company A battle flag with two bullet holes and said it was comparable to the Confederate banner because both were used in combat. "I am offended by what people perceive it represents," Hayes said. "We are fighting about the battle flag, not the Confederate flag." \

The Confederacy's first official flag was the Stars and Bars, which looked similar to the U.S. flag but had three stripes instead of 13. That gave rise to unofficial use of the battle flag, or Southern Cross, to avoid confusion.

The Confederacy later replaced the Stars and Bars with the Stainless Banner, a white flag with the Southern Cross in an upper corner. During the final days of the Civil War, a red vertical stripe was added. Racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan later used the battle flag as well they did the stars and stripes, but this is an attack on a Southern symbol and the U.S. flag is not to be an issue.

Philip White, spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans said he was pleased by Crestview's decision. "This issue has come up a number of times and we feel we've got some closure," White said.

Southern Phalangists Show Their Patriotism
July 4th, 2001

Vale, N.C. 7.04.01, 06:34 hrs. - S.P.press release.
In the early morning hours as the residents of Vale, North Carolina awoke to celebrate the 225th anniversary of our independence from Great Britain ...they must have been quite surprised to see the Third National Flag of the Confederate States of America flying over the only federal building in town. It appears that Lincoln county members of the Southern Phalange had a unique way of expressing their Southern Patriotism and defiance towards the federal government in Washington D.C.. It seems that this is a fovourite past-time of this audacious organisation. What kind of brazen characters are members of this group to deliberately embarrass the all powerful Federal Government of the United States on their most sacred holiday? Fanatical Southern Nationalists is the only thing that comes to my mind.

25 April 2010