Should the Confederate flag be outlawed?

Its amazing you could get so many wrong headed ideas across in such a few words.

#1. I don't accept the misguided notion that secession is illegal.

"There can be no doubt that the states created the constitution and delegated certain powers to the federal government as their agent, while reserving the right to withdraw from that compact."

What kind of twisted logic enables a person to believe that a Union formed by the States actually created the states that created it.

#2 Lets don't get stuck on stupid if you start trying to ban everything that someone might be offended by there won't be anything left. The KKK burned crosses as an scare tactic I don't see you trying to band crosses. Maybe you just hadn't got around to that yet. The Nazi's also used eagles, maybe eagles should be banned. How about the color red? I'm offended and irrated by the appearance of pasty faced, square headed Yankees can we ban them, or at the least can we ban them from speaking out loud, so we don't have to hear that horrible Yankee accent.

#3 You want to see the stars and bars everywhere just ban it and watch what happens. Besides the flag you're thinking of is the battle flag, the actual flag of the confederacy, looks a lot like the U.S. flag. The stars and bars wasn't the only battle flag do you propose to ban all battle flags used by confederate forces?

Finally there can be no doubt that slavery was a factor in the civil war. But it was a factor not the only cause.

"If you look for the real cause of the Civil War you must first understand it was not a Civil War but a war of independence, or revolutionary war. The cause was tariffs. By 1860 Southern States being major exporters and importers paid 80 percent of federal taxes and were sure most of it was being spent in Northern states. When Lincoln was elected he promised even higher tariffs and southerners feared even more severe plundering by the North."

There is no doubt the war ended slavery but, slavery ended around the globe without war, and it wasn't necessary here. The war here was to subjugate the Southern states. Lincoln as much as admitted it. After the terrible loss of life the victors wrote the history books and used the slavery issue to justify their actions.

The confederate flag, perhaps, used to be a sign of states rights. Or, it could be a symbol of division. But, to the vast majority of Americans alive today, it is a symbol of slavery, and the fight to keep them. Nevermind that the civil war was only tangentally about slavery, THAT is what the flag stands for today.

It would be my hope that the flag would be buried in embarrassment, and not held up as a symbol of pride, just as I would hope that racial bigotry would be buried in embarrassment.

Having said that, the confederate flag should not be outlawed. It is a symbol. A symbol representing a view which is repugnant and ignorant. However, people have the right, not only to hold such views, but to express them. We should not be making views, or the expression of them, illegal, else who will make the decision on the "correct" views?

This is not the same as yelling filre in a crowded theatre. Nor is it to say that we should permit employment or accomodation to be based on race, national origin. But, provided that one obeys the law on conduct, we can only hope to change views through enlighted effors at education. Not through censorship.

I live in the mid south and we have places that sell the flag everywhere. There are some who use it for the wrong purposes and I dont' care for that part of it but as far a getting rid of the flag it would be taking away part of the southern heritage.

I won't give you any Southern Pride **** but Mississippi, for one, voted on the issue of whether we should have a new design for our state flag or keep the old one. The present one has a Confederate flag on it. The vote, by the people of Mississippi, was to keep the old flag. I voted for the new design because it was pretty but I was outvoted. That should be good enough for you, since you don't live in this state.

Since the American flag is a symbol of suppression and genocide of the American Indian, should it also be banded in areas where there are predominately native Indians? As for what they Confederacy did had more to do with protecting their land and crop rights than anything else. We were in the middle of the Little Ice Age, which meant northern farms were producing little to no food. The north demanded that the south make up the difference, without adequate compensation. We did the same thing to Cuba, as well as Mexico.

I wish it had a better history it is a nice looking flag which they are free to fly because of the constitution. The only way it will go away is when enough people wish to make it so. And there are much more pressing issues such as those still suffering from Katrina's wrath.

Just my opinion in a sea of opinions <>< <><

The Confederate Battle Flag should not be outlawed. Secession is a right of the States.

The Battle Flag should no more be outlawed than the American flag should be outlawed for the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the extermination of the American Indians.

No, it should not be outlawed. The Southern Flag should be a reminder (no matter where it is) of a period in our history where we allowed our country to be deeply divided and the horrible struggle undertaken to heal it. That flag should remind us all that our country is worth fighting a dying for.

I don't care for the Confederate flag or anything it represents (or any other flag for that matter), but none the less people have the right to freely express themself. So no, it shouldn't be banned and people should have just as much a right to fly it, as I should have to burn it.

this flag shouldn't be banned in this country unless you are willing to ban ALL other flags that aren't U.S. Flags, this includes the mexican, the english the German the other s h i t from iraq or any of the others we have to look at on any given day, when you start banning anything where do you stop?