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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kvkkc1 who wrote (119762)	12/28/2000 1:07:55 AM
From: Mr. Whist	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

What follows is a most excellent article on why the Confederate flag is offensive. The following appeared about a year ago, right after the Super Bowl in Atlanta. As you may recall, there was some controversy on whether the NFL should be playing Super Bowls in states that display the Stars and Bars. I've saved this article for a year, and am now sharing it with the board to support the view that descendants of the boys who wore blue 140 years ago also have a right to speak out. By Michael Bauman Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ATLANTA -- You walked up to the Georgia Dome last Sunday, feeling all right. it was the Super Bowl and it was, as always, a privilege to be on hand. You looked up and saw Old Glory waving. You noticed the cold, you noticed the wind. That was all right, too. It was just like Wisconsin. And then you saw something that was nothing like Wisconsin. In fact, it was nothing like America. Right next to the Stars and Stripes, there was the Georgia state flag. And on the state flag was the Confederate battle emblem. Now, you boys from the Sons of Confederate War Veterans aren't going to like what comes next. You can write the letters if you, but you can also save the strain on your crayons. You'll be writing to a son of Union veterans. Some of us have had enough. Someone needs to say so. The National Football League should hold no event in a place that flies this flag, this representation of hatred, bigotry and inhumanity. The NFL should not have held a Super Bowl here. It should not hold an exhibition game here. It should not have a franchise here, as long as the official state symbol is also a symbol of racial prejudice. Oh, we've heard the arguments. Only a tiny percentage of Confederate soldiers actually owned slaves. Well, then, the rest of you Rebs were really chumps; fighting so that somebody else could own slaves. But, of course, you say that the Civil War wasn't about slavery. It was about states' rights. Right. It was about a state's rights to be a slave state. We've also heard you say that the Confederate emblem is merely a remembrance of the gallantry of the Confederate fighting men and that the rest of us simply do not understand. No one disputes the valor or the fighting spirit of the Confederate fighting men. But that had no more moral merit than the bravery of the Japanese fighting men in World War II. This is what you fail to grasp: You were not simply on the losing side. You were on the wrong side. You were on the wrong side of history. You were on the wrong side of morality. You were on the wrong side of basic human decency. Those of us who are descended from the other side, the good guys, understand that the Civil War was fought to preserve the union and to abolish slavery. You lost it all, but you cling to this remnant. Your tired old emblem, because of what it represents, sickens millions of Americans. And that is the real reason you are still flying it. That piece of cloth, that symbol is the last piece of ground you hold. No person of color, and no Billy Yank can force this one last retreat. You wave it proud and say it loud. We spoke to Atlanta residents of varying backgrounds this last week. The thoughtful among them were either embarrassed or outraged by that flag. But the politics of Georgia appear to be such that the flag stays. William T. Sherman had a notion about how to get rid of that flag in Atlanta. But we are in gentler times now. If you choose to treasure injustice, that's up to you. but it is another thing when the NFL, an American institution, gleefully walks under your flag and lets the good times roll as though it all meant nothing. The leadership of the NFL chooses to remain blissfully sedated on this issue. There's a buck to be made, let's not rock the boat. If the Super bowl returns to Atlanta under this flag, the commissioner's name will be changed -- to Jefferson Davis Tagliabue.