welcome to the new confederacy

man, i just can't believe this crap still goes on.

Higginsville, Mo. - As the rebel battle flag flapped above the Confederate Memorial Historic Site in Higginsville for the first time in more than two years, Lonnie Miller watched Sunday's ceremony with pride.

"It's not a symbol of racism to me," said Miller, 62, of Kirkwood, whose great-grandfather, Alonzo W. Slayback, was a Confederate officer and whose daughter-in-law, Berryl, is black. "It's a horrible period of history and it needs to be remembered like any other period of history."

hm. if the confederate flag isn't a symbol of hate, then why do native-grown terror organisations and racist thugs always use it as their calling card? why, at cross-burnings, does it appear?

"The Irish, the Scottish, the Italians, the Jewish, the African-Americans have their special festivals," said Jim Beckner, 61, of Raymore, Mo., who organized Sunday's ceremony. "This is one day to honor our Southern heritage that ran through our Southern blood."

come again? if this isn't about racism, then how come you just listed a large percentage of the population of the american south at the time of the civil war as being specifically excluded from this? did i miss something when i learnt in school that many southern soldiers and prominent leaders of the confederacy were jewish, like judah p. benjamin, or that the only jewish-specific military cemetery outside of israel is the burial site in richmond (virginia) for confederate jews dedicated in 1866 by the 'hebrew ladies memorial association'? or that thousands of jews fought for the confederacy in the trenches of some of the worst battles of the war - perhaps some 3000 died in combat on the southern side.

i would decry any simple reading of "southern heritage" as "white, anglo-saxon immigrant slave-holding culture".

and those who support the flying of the flag, one of the most divisive images of the last 150 years for americans, can't have their cake and eat it, too. the irish, the scottish, the jewish and the african-american communities were part of the confederacy, and it's either a sign for southern remembrance or it's a sign of intended racial tension. make a fucking decision, people - you can't have it both ways.

and it's pretty clear to me what the phrase, "this is one day to honor our southern heritage that ran through our southern blood" means when you are excluding ethnic groups present as part of the old south from that heritage.

In Higginsville, Civil War re-enactors wearing battle uniforms and 19th-century-style dress carried Confederate flags and marched into the cemetery to the tune of "Dixie," played by a string trio. Descendants of Confederate soldiers led prayers, sang songs, read the names of their ancestors aloud and honored their ancestors by laying red carnations across the stone monument flanked by about 600 stone gravestones. The graves were adorned with smaller Confederate flags stuck in the ground.

and burning crosses stuck in the yards of black, gay, immigrant and interracial families later that evening.

that's just wrong, people. wrong with a capital creepy.

Blunt's action sends the wrong message by lending credibility to Confederate ideology, puts state government in a position of becoming an "agent of terror" and runs counter to the ideals of President Abraham Lincoln and the history of the Republican Party, Crumpton said. Blunt is a Republican.

"We're not trying to say that Americans should not honor their dead or not revere their heroes," Crumpton said. "The government should not be apart of it. If these individuals want to honor their dead, then that's their business. We all live under one flag. We just had Memorial Day and that's what the state should be supporting."

and in rebuttal:

"Each of us has the right to honor families as we deem properly, and Missouri and American history from our own perspective," spokesman Spence Jackson said.

because white is right.

the best part? the flag was banned in 2003 from flying in missouri by governor's order because it was too divisive an image given the unnaturally long memories of missourians, who fought on both sides of the american civil war in organised units. even in missouri there were native-born unionists in sufficient numbers that the state was the most divided of all those existing at that time.

why do people feel an overwhelming need to stir up the most bitter historical conflicts in their daily lives? read the sign, byotches:

N O D R A M A

thanks, all hat, no cattle.