Taking offense at flags

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Here we go with the typical public outcry, and trying to erase/rewrite history. Leave it alone, people... it ain't yours to take away.
No one is trying to erase or rewrite history (except the southerns who insist the Confederate battle flag has nothing to do with racism and that the Civil War was about states rights and had nothing to do with wanting to preserve slavery). What's happening now is something that has been repeated time and time again throughout history, namely going after the symbols, and monuments, that make strong statements of past values. In this case, the values that held dear slavery. People will go after the symbols of that time and of those values, like the battle flag, and the monuments to the southern fighters that fought to preserve those values. All the monuments to Saddam Hussein in Iraq are gone, toppled and removed. Same with the monuments to to the Soviet leadership in Russia. Gone. The history hasn't been erased or rewritten, it's simply been left in the past where it belongs. The same will happen again.


In 1900, the average life expectancy in the US was 47 years. Despite all of our progress, life in the 1800's was short, nasty and brutish. Most Americans in that era were in survival mode.
Yeah, incidentally, a 47 year life expectancy doesn't mean that people work hard all their lives in survival mode and then start dropping dead at 47, or thereabouts. The term "life expectancy" causes several misconceptions, the biggest of which is when people read or hear that the average U.S. life expectancy was 47 years in 1900 and 78 years as of 2007, they readily conclude there weren’t a lot of old people in the old days, and that modern medicine invented old age. The fact is, life in the 1800s wasn't all that short, nasty or brutish, for those who managed to survive childhood, anyway.

Back then, as now, if you can manage to attain double-digits years, you had an excellent chance of living out your allotted three score and ten. Life expectancy numbers are highly skewed by, among other things, infant morality rates, and back in the 1900, the U.S. infant mortality rate was approximately 100 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2000, the rate was 6.89 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Start adding in all the childhood diseases that can kill you, for which there was no medical treatment, and the life expectancy rates skews downward some more. Ten percent didn't survive one year, and another 30 percent didn't survive ten years. But if you made it past 10, you had an excellent chance of surviving into your 60s, 70s and 80s, same as people do today.

The largest single factor in the near-doubling of life expectancy is the invention of vaccines, mostly those which prevented childhood diseases. The next biggest factors are medical treatments that allow older folks to live a little longer.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
Being an outside observer....like non American....it seems there is a move to eliminate the history of this country IF its not politically correct..ban it, burn it. The Tom Sawyer issue of Jim comes to mind...Well isn't that exactly how you guys got to this point to begin with?.....If you can't celebrate the wins over the past if you excise them away...wheres the learning curve for the next generations to see where you came from?...and the strides to correct the past.
Maybe the next move from History will be Bill Clintons Presidency because getting a BJ in the Oval Office is politically incorrect.....
in history if there is no swastika there can be no haulocaust...IMO of course

EDIT...after Turtles post....

Still to the common person these issues represent the past to most....we made mistakes...some are symbols of those mistakes and where we as a country has evolved.....
 

Unclebob

Expert Expediter
Owner/Operator
Those symbols deserve a place in history. But in history books and history classes. Not standing in front of government buildings. We need to remember those symbols to see where we've gone wrong in the past so that we can be better in the future.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
Those symbols deserve a place in history. But in history books and history classes. Not standing in front of government buildings. We need to remember those symbols to see where we've gone wrong in the past so that we can be better in the future.
Thats what I WAS trying to say in essence....Thanks BoB.....:)
 

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
So if the white supremacists decided to use the rainbow flag to represent themselves would you want that flag removed? Some people use the battle flag for different things but we should consider the intent instead of just demonizing it. It is just a flag after all and it can't hurt anyone. If someone wants to use it to show they are a redneck, proud of southern culture, a white supremacist, or anything else then let them. The actions of the person are what matters in the end.
It's called freedom of speech, freedom of expression, a fundamental constitutional right that we enjoy. If the elected representatives of the people of SC have decided to remove the confederate flag from the state capitol building for obvious reasons, so be it - that's their decision to make. However, individuals should have the right to fly this flag in their front yard, on their pickup, or anywhere else they please. If someone is offended by the sight of it that's their problem.

It's likely that many people find this flag offensive because it represents racism, bigotry, antisemitism and an anti-American belief system that many people find offensive. There has been no call for it to be banned from display by the individuals who believe in what it represents.

 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
However, individuals should have the right to fly this flag in their front yard, on their pickup, or anywhere else they please. If someone is offended by the sight of it that's their problem.

It's likely that many people find this flag offensive because it represents racism, bigotry, antisemitism and an anti-American belief system that many people find offensive. There has been no call for it to be banned from display by the individuals who believe in what it represents.

IMO, it's only a matter of time before it will be illegal to display the confederate flag on a person's own property, especially if it could be seen by the public. It will be viewed as a form of ethnic intimidation and racial harassment, much like if someone were to burn a cross on their front lawn.
 
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LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Walmart will no longer make a cake with a Stars and Bars flag image but take heart, they will make a cake for you with the ISIS flag image.
 

Ragman

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Walmart will no longer make a cake with a Stars and Bars flag image but take heart, they will make a cake for you with the ISIS flag image.
A video of a cake is not proof wal-mart made it.
 

cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
ISIS/ISIL is not a threat to American citizens on American soil. White supremacists, [the KKK, et al], have been and are responsible for terrorism of innocent Americans in their own homes.
Do you know about the riots in Tulsa, Ok, in 1921? I bet not - it wasn't taught in our history books, that's for sure.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Amazing, just amazing!

I can not believe someone can fall for this.
I posted an article with the video from Inquistr. You are saying they are duped as well. BTW, I recalled you linking an Inquistr article previously.
 

muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
ISIS/ISIL is not a threat to American citizens on American soil. White supremacists, [the KKK, et al], have been and are responsible for terrorism of innocent Americans in their own homes.
Do you know about the riots in Tulsa, Ok, in 1921? I bet not - it wasn't taught in our history books, that's for sure.
That is your rationale? Because a terrorist group is doing it overseas, it is ok for Walmart to put their flag on it.
 

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Those are probably the same answers the administration would give.
 

Ragman

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I posted an article with the video from Inquistr. You are saying they are duped as well. BTW, I recalled you linking an Inquistr article previously.
I do not believe Wal-Mart knowingly approved such a cake made as the OP suggested.

Perhaps I erred including your post. If I did, I sincerely apologize.
 
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cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
That is your rationale? Because a terrorist group is doing it overseas, it is ok for Walmart to put their flag on it.

Hey, I think WM should have put the Confederate flag on the cake. If they're going to ban 'terrorist' symbols, they need to be educated on what those symbols are [do they speak Arabic?] Problem is, it's a great big world out there - anyone familiar with the flag of Bokul Harum? Would a WM cake decorator know who Che Guevara was? Would they recognize a photo of Stalin, or Mussolini?
They're just reacting to public pressure, but the public isn't very well educated either, on the subject of terrorism.
 

muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I'm going to leave open the possibility that the WM cake decorator wasn't aware of what the ISIS flag actually looked like. The person might not even know who ISIS is. From a source who works in a bakery, people can bring in their own images to have decorated on a cake. The description on the order form is usually just a check mark next to a statement: " used customer's image".
 

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
That very well may be however if it's going to be a corporate position to eliminate the battle flag might it not be a good idea to include the ISIS flag and a few others that are far more onerous than the battle flag? That would be the non-hypocritical way to do it.
 
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