pz

Several years ago when I was last on the job market, I was sending out the CV all over the country. I wasn't too picky about where we ended up (the work was more important than the location), with one exception: I absolutely refused to consider living in the south. There were several job possibilities in Texas, but that was the absolutely last, rock-bottom place I'd ever want to end up.

It's nothing personal, but there are just too many ignorant screwed-up people down there. I can see that there also plenty of good, intelligent people, but you guys are the minority. I chose to live somewhere where the odds aren't quite as great against me.

Unfortunately, with the current crop of dimwits in office, I fear that we're going to see the widespread Texification of America, and living in Minnesota isn't going to help me. It's a nightmare.

RufusAtticus

Several years ago when I was last on the job market, I was sending out the CV all over the country. I wasn't too picky about where we ended up (the work was more important than the location), with one exception: I absolutely refused to consider living outside of Georgia. There were several job possibilities in Texas, New York, California, and Wisconsin but that was the absolutely last, rock-bottom place I'd ever want to end up.

It's nothing personal, but there are just too many ignorant screwed-up people outside of Georgia. I can see that there also plenty of good, intelligent people, but you guys are the minority. I chose to live somewhere where the odds aren't quite as great against me.

Unfortunately, with the current crop of dimwits in office, I fear that we're going to see the widespread Americanization of Georgia, and living in Athens isn't going to help me. It's a nightmare.

See how fun and enlightening jingoism is?

Sorry, but you won't improve the South by using your prejudices to write it off. We are more complex than the cusin-fuckin', bible-thumpin', negro-hatin', knowledge-fearin' yokels that the Union Media protray us to be.

~~RvFvS~~

RufusAtticus

The Georgia flag has been a very important issue in Georgia politics for the last 20 years or so. Like every symbol, the Confederate Battle Flag has both good and bad things attached to it. One of the main objections to the pushes to change the flag was that it was felt that people from outside the state were making the push to change it and that they were making erroneous statements about how it offended all African-Americans in Georgia, among others. Another fear was that confederate memorials would be the next to go. That happened in South Carolina when after the battle flag was removed from the state capitol the NAACP tried to have the confederate memorial removed also.

One of the reasons that the bill to change the flag finally got enough legislative support to pass was that it designated the 1956-2001 flag as the state confederate memorial flag to be flown at relevant historical sites and on relevant days. It also made it a crime to destroy or deface confederate memorials. Originally this bill would have changed the flag to the 1920-1956 flag, which has the CSA flag, which was considered inoffensive. However, for some reason when the bill was in committee, they completely scrapped this and introduced a flag designed by an Atlanta architect, which no one liked.

This bill was rushed through the legislature and the first whiff that it existed was when the news announced that “the house passed a bill last week, the senate will vote on it tomorrow. Here’s your ugly flag.” It was passed so stealthily and hastily because the politicians wanted to catch the public off guard. Furthermore, the major impetus to the legislature was the threat that Atlanta might lose some tourism dollars, which made non-Atlantans even less satisfied about the bill.

Many Georgians fell that they should have been given the option to vote on our flag; however, that was unconstitutional. The state constitution prohibits the legislature delegating any of its powers to a popular vote. Since the legislature had already enacted flag laws, the power to change the flag rested solely on the shoulders of the legislators. The government and media have done such a poor job in educating our citizens about this that even our governor-elect doesn’t understand it.

Many places still fly the 1956 flag to protest our current, ugly flag. However, the best statement in protest of our flag that I have seen is on the Kappa Sigma house at Georgia:



~~RvFvS~~
<a href="http://www.sos.state.ga.us/museum/html/georgia_flag_history.html" target="_blank">Georgia Flag History</a>

Toto

What good things are attached to the Confederate flag? Isn't it just a code symbol for southern resistance to integration?

RufusAtticus

"Isn't the Darwin fish a code symbol for hatred of Christianity?" Toto, your statement is just as simplistic.

On it's most basic, I'd say that the confederate battle flag is a symbol of White Southerners. Like all cultures, the White South has its noble and ignoble parts. Many white southerners see it as a recognition of the lives lost defending their homes. Most non-southerners don't understand that most of the men who fought for the South were too poor to own slaves. They gave their lives for their states not slavery. Just like men from the North.

However, many racists, southern or not, have used it as a symbol of their politics, which gives people like you the impression that that is all it stands for. Misconceptions like yours is why people in Georgia don't like outsiders, who are ignorant of the issues, trying to tell us what to do.

~~RvFvS~~

GH

This is a good reason not to have the Confederate flag as part of our state flag, in my opinion. Georgia is not a White state any more than American is a Christian nation. Our state flag shouldn't be a "symbol of White Southerners." And we certainly don't need to have a symbol that most people see as racist flying over the capitol, since Georgia already looks bad enough to everyone else. But personal use is fine, as is use at Confederate memorials. Put it on your truck, fly it at your house or the Confederate cemetary, but don't represent the entire state with it.

Like I said, just my opinion.

RufusAtticus

GH,

I agree with you. Our state flag should be inclusive, that's one of the reasons why I don't like IGWT on it. I just don't like my state being judged by people ignorant of our situation and history.

~~RvFvS~~

[ November 08, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>

GH

Sadly, it often seems most of the people who live here are also ignorant of our situation and history. But I understand what you're saying.

atheist_in_foxhole

Imagine if parts of Germany wanted their local flags to include the Nazi swastika. It is, after all, their heritage. And millions of young German men died for that flag.

RufusAtticus

This is not at all similar, and shows that your very ignorant about this issue. The Nazi Swastika is not a symbol of a people but of an ideology. But please explain to me the attrocities committed by the South under the Confederate Battle Flag. Comparing Nazi Germany to the South is like comparing Stalin to Internet Infidels.

But I would also like to point out that we don't live in that German Town, so we have no right to tell them what to put on their flag.

~~RvFvS~~

[ November 09, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>