So, What Do You Think About The Confederate Flag?

[RhymesayersDU]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2837735

Updated: April 14, 2007, 11:55 PM ET
Spurrier: Flag should come down from S.C. Statehouse
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Confederate flag shouldn't fly at the Statehouse, South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said Saturday after the Gamecocks' spring game.

Spurrier's comments came in response to questions about something he said Friday night when he received an award from a volunteer organization. According to people at that event, Spurrier said the flag should come down.

"My opinion is we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol," Spurrier said Saturday. "I don't really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there."

City Year board chairman Kerry Abel said Spurrier's remarks at his group's awards banquet Friday night caught everyone by surprise.

On a video of the banquet, Spurrier is heard saying the South Carolina-Tennessee game last year, which was featured on ESPN's "GameDay," was marred "by some clown ... waving that dang, damn Confederate flag behind the TV set. And it was embarrassing to me and I know embarrassing to our state.

"I realize I'm not supposed to get in the political arena as a football coach, but if anybody were ever to ask me about that damn Confederate flag, I would say we need to get rid of it. I've been told not to talk about that. But if anyone were ever to ask me about it, I certainly wish we could get rid of it."

Jenna Micklash, who attended the event, said the coach's comments came as he accepted a citizenship award from the group, which encourages young people to take on community improvement projects.

Micklash said Spurrier prefaced his remarks by saying the event wasn't supposed to be political and said that he doesn't usually get a chance to talk to as diverse a crowd as the one that was at the awards ceremony.

"I think everybody got kind of excited about" bringing down the flag, Micklash said later Friday. "It was one of the coolest moments I've seen."

Spurrier's predecessor, Lou Holtz, joined Clemson's football coach Tommy Bowden and both schools' head basketball coaches in calling for the flag to be removed from the Capitol dome in 2000, when the NAACP started a boycott of the state.

The flag was removed from the dome in 2000 but placed at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds. The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said that was not good enough and continued its boycott. The initial boycott drew wide support from inside and outside the state, but encouragement for the ongoing effort has waned in recent years.

The NCAA has prohibited the state from playing host to championship events in which the sites are deterimined in advance -- such as the basketball regionals -- since 2001 because of the Confederate flag.

Spurrier said Saturday that no one had asked him his opinion of the flag in the two season he has coached at South Carolina.

[Rocket 7]

Do they still way the flag at Ole Miss?

[WABronco]

I've never heard anyone make a valid argument as to why it's still acceptable (i'd like someone to try, honestly). There's always gonna be those rednecks and redneck wannabees that will have it on their trucks, but above a state capital?

[Rock Chalk]

flag was removed from the dome in 2000 but placed at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds

Seems to me this is one of the few places where it might be appropriate to bear that flag. JMO.

[ZONA]

I don't know why it's still around either. It doesn't represent a county, state, city, county, government body, military branch, university, business institution, and the list goes on. What it does represent is the past, therefore it should be in a museum and that's it.

[2KBack]

Originally Posted by Alec

Seems to me this is one of the few places where it might be appropriate to bear that flag. JMO.

I agree, memorials and museums, but not state buildings

[GonzoLays]

So, what do you think of the confederate flag, Rhymes? You keep popping up with these explosive threads yet you never give your opinion on the matter.

[GonzoLays]

Bendog, get your ass in this thread and tell everyone about how your daughter will not allow you to fly your rebel flag. Tell'em, it was a good story.

[GonzoLays]

Originally Posted by Dipso

Do they still way the flag at Ole Miss?

Nope, they now fly the M symbol flag.

[usedupbraids]

One word ....WOW

[listopencil]

I can understand why people don't want it flown at a government building. It doesn't represent anything having do to with our Federal or any State government. I will, however, display it proudly when and where I chose. It is properly called "The Battle Flag Of The Confederacy" and it represents the fighting men of the Confederate South.

[listopencil]

"The flag was removed from the dome in 2000 but placed at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds."


Then either put the monument somewhere else or stop b****ing.

[scorpio]

Originally Posted by listopencil

It is properly called "The Battle Flag Of The Confederacy" and it represents the fighting men of the Confederate South.

No, it represents traitors and enemies of the United States of America.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by scorpio

No, it represents traitors and enemies of the United States of America.

They aren't mutually exclusive, you incredible dumbass.

[GonzoLays]

I'm all for hillbillies flying their hillbilly flag. It's their right and more power to them.

And besides, what kind of perception do you have of a person flying a flag that is no longer relevant and associated with racism (rightly or wrongly). Not flattering to say the least. You are screwing yourself basically.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by GonzoLays

I'm all for hillbillies flying their hillbilly flag. It's their right and more power to them.

And besides, what kind of perception do you have of a person flying a flag that is no longer relevant and associated with racism (rightly or wrongly). Not flattering to say the least. You are screwing yourself basically.

And it's your right to express that perception just as it is my right to fly that flag.

[GonzoLays]

Originally Posted by listopencil

And it's your right to express that perception just as it is my right to fly that flag.

I'm with you on that. cheers

[BroncoInferno]

There is no legitimate reason to fly that flag. It represents oppression, nothing honorable. You don't see Germans hanging the Nazi flag over their state houses. I mean, it is part of their "heritage", right?

By the way, where they moved the flag in SC is actually more visible now than it was above the state house. Anyone driving in downtown Columbia can't miss it.

[GonzoLays]

I guess rhymes never has an opinion. He just goes with what the majority says.

[scorpio]

Originally Posted by listopencil

They aren't mutually exclusive, you incredible dumbass.

Wow, are you going to cry when they take your traitor's colors down? Do you fly a North Vietnamese and Nazi flag too?

Incredible dumbass indeed.

[Florida_Bronco]

Originally Posted by WABronco

There's always gonna be those rednecks and redneck wannabees that will have it on their trucks

I can't wait for that fad to die out. It disgusts me to no end.

[WABronco]

Originally Posted by BroncoInferno

There is no legitimate reason to fly that flag. It represents oppression, nothing honorable. You don't see Germans hanging the Nazi flag over their state houses. I mean, it is part of their "heritage", right?

That's exactly what I was going to say.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by scorpio

Wow, are you going to cry when they take your traitor's colors down? Do you fly a North Vietnamese and Nazi flag too?

Incredible dumbass indeed.

1) Our Founding Fathers were traitors and enemies of the British Empire.

2) I don't live in S.C.

3) You're still a dumbass.

[Rascal]

I understand southern pride, but it is a direct insult to every black person in this country for what it stands for and also to the soldiers of the North who died.

IMO it shouldn't be allowed to hang at any organization, state, whatever that receives federal money.

[Dagmar]

The confedarate flag is for racists and bigots.