Belle and List, I know we have ridden this horse to death and I started not to say another thing, but Sandra L. Walther, President of Friends of Fort Davidson and a Civil War reenactor, said exactly what I feel. "It is truly sad that political officials now provide the norms of society and dictate what is right and proper when in the past we went to our homes and churches for moral guidance. Whether this action was politically correct or not, it is morally wrong." Removal of a flag (in my opinion) ... any flag, for any cause for which our soldiers died for, without a vote from the people is not the democracy our country is founded on, or what our forefathers for the past two hundred years have fought and died for. This is and remains to be the problem I have had over the removal of the Confederate flag. One by one I see our great nation loosing its democracy and all that it stands for. It only took one woman to remove prayer from our schools, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember the American Citizens being asked their opinion on that either. Now one man has removed flags, without any regard for what the Citizens of America think about it. Today it was the Confederate flag, tomorrow what? We are a country who has a government that is supposed to work for us, the American Citizen. We pay taxes, and we are supposed to be allowed to vote and express our opinions freely. How then does one man have the right to remove a flag or anything else that has been a part of our heritage without first asking at least the State in which it affected? Someone else said "Why fight ... it's a losing battle" Why? Because I am an AMERICAN and I'm Proud to stand up for her, just like all my forefathers were who fought for her and died for her. Maybe the flag needs removing ... but don't WE the PEOPLE have the RIGHT to decide that for ourselves? I've read a lot of good points pro and con on this right here in the last few days, seems to me this website has plenty of intelligent people on it, a shame Gephardt apparently only thinks what he thinks is right. Off the soapbox now. And thanks for all the good points and history lessons. In a message dated 1/19/2003 2:13:05 PM Central Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Nana, > I did not mention the D.A.R. to which I belong. > > Why do I say that in the near future it will be unwise to be members of the > UDC and SCV.....well, probably a little extreme. But look what happened to > Trent Lott. Does anyone in their right mind think that his statements at > Strom Thurmond's birthday party were intended to convey the message that a > return to segregation would be good? And you didn't hear one national > figure > defend him. Lott was left "hanging in the wind" on that one. I was > flabbergasted. Where has common sense gone? > > Southerners have been successful painted and tarred with the "racist label" > to those outside of the South. The media has done it for years and are > still > doing it. Frankly, I would think people would get a little bored with the > same old theme rehashed in so many venues. Of course the race riots that > have > occurred in other parts of the country go unnoticed while the focus is > always > on the South. > > There's just no point in waving a red flag in front of a bull in my not so > humble opinion. > > Belle