Everyone here help bree!

[buttslinger]

I don't get it, if the flag is so offensive to black folks, then why did Bree try to steal it?

[Ben in LA]

I don't get it, if the flag is so offensive to black folks, then why did Bree try to steal it?

She didn't try to steal it, she tried to remove it because it's a slap in the face to the non-whites of that state. When the shooting of the Charleston Nine occurred, the U.S. flag and the state flag were lowered to half-mast out of respect...but the confederate flag continued to fly at full-mast.

Many people consider the flag to be a representation of hate. Yeah, yeah...it could have been the "battle flag" (whatever; it was still used by slave owners), but it was (and still is) used as an intimidation tool and as a symbol of racism. For quite a few years after the Civil War, it wasn't displayed as prominately; it was raised again in protest during the Civil Rights era.

So yeah, fuck that flag (and fuck that monument as well). I'm sure she'll go to jail with a smile on her face.

[thx1138]

If you "Johnny Reb' types don't like your flag taken down raise an army and march on Washington. Bring your 6 shooters, shot guns and bibles. You're going to need them.

[Wendy Summers]

At the end of the day, what she performed was civil disobedience. I'd be surprised if she didn't know she would get arrested for it. My guess, history will look favorably on her actions and she will get a pardon at some point. That action she took was heroic, but it was still criminal. Non-violent civil disobedience has a long history in our country when it comes to civil rights and has been a huge force for social change. Thankfully there are brave men & women like her who will take a stand.

[EZWind]

There is no monument? She did nothing of the sort? I just posted a video of her doing exactly something of the sort lol. And here's a photograph of the monument....

Attachment 855959

Are you being willfully ignorant or are you really that out of touch with reality?

...ignorant?...no, that's on you when it comes to the concept of defacement. Okay, so there is some sort of concrete or stone structure there, but she did not spray paint it or take a sledge hammer to it and in fact did nothing at all to deface the "monument". All she did was scale a flagpole and remove a symbol of hate, treason and persecution.
....out of touch w/ reality?...maybe so....I'm certainly not in touch w/ the mindset of a people who see fit to honor a bunch of plantation owners who would rather die than give up the practice of owning and abusing other human beings. If I had that in my past I would say let them all die and be forgotten. I certainly wouldn't be erecting any "monuments" in their "honor". If that's what being out of touch w/ reality means then sign me up

[EZWind]

She didn't try to steal it, she tried to remove it...etc...So yeah, fuck that flag (and fuck that monument as well). I'm sure she'll go to jail with a smile on her face.... Fuck the confederate flag. Fuck the so-called "heritage" of that flag. Fuck anyone who defends using that flag.

...Right On, Ben, you get full marks for all those points
....also, and I don't presume to speak for buttslinger, but I'd be willing to bet his comment was of the tongue in cheek variety

[EZWind]

.......but most people who have never lived in the South tend to have weird ideas about them that are stereotypical and off base.

....off base? if they weren't as "weird" and stereotypical as our ideas of them are, there would be no treasonous flag flying on the capitol grounds...at full staff I might add, even after 9 innocent people were brutally murdered in it's name

I am just talking from my observation of living there for three years. It's just a different world.)

...that's for sure....but still somehow, I don't see how that makes it right or proper

[lifeisfiction]

....off base? if they weren't as "weird" and stereotypical as our ideas of them are, there would be no treasonous flag flying on the capitol grounds...at full staff I might add, even after 9 innocent people were brutally murdered in it's name

...that's for sure....but still somehow, I don't see how that makes it right or proper

The flag is not the problem and if you think it is, it's certainly the least of the problems. The real problem is ingrained in their societal belief, but to say this it's not that simple. I will briefly try to explain it. I always will look at things from a person's point of view. I had discussions with people in the south about the confederate flag (they had the large flags proudly displayed in their homes) on how they viewed the confederate flag. I am black so it was interesting to here them explain it. From the discussion I understood why they viewed the flag in that manner.For some, while the south had a hell of a history, they still have some pride in their heritage. Many people who want the flag removed don't realize the flag is the least of the problems.

My only problem with society we don't find ways to help people understand various views and so people become aggressive to anything that causes a change in their way of life. I like to work with people where they are and help to understand outside their culture. Sadly that's not society today.

Let me get this out the way. Is what the woman did civil disobedience? No. The people who went through hell for civil disobedience were fighting laws that were the epitome of making someone less than human. Where you did not have any rights (you were called less than equal and treated that way) in the society you lived in. They fought the very law itself. Is the flag the same thing, no. You take the down the flag and the attitudes don't change. Its a symbol versus a law. Symbols can only change within the society itself a law is different. A law has the ability to grant the privileges and rights to individuals and groups. A symbol can only change when the group that values it changes their attitudes toward it. Outside forces trying to impose change only entrenches the views. It just makes people grow more spiteful internally and when it wells up, then the real problem begins. I know what she is trying to do and I understand, but that's not the best way to handle the situation. What happened in the church is horrendous, but I don't believe in surface solutions. It never fixes anything and flag is the least of the problem.

Many people will comment, talk about it, but have to live in that society for the next 10 years is what many won't have to endure. They will have to live with the tensions while many of us may and never will experience it all simply because won't don't live there. Its not the flag that is causing people to act out and that is what I would want to solve.

PS: I don't like to talk politics I deal with enough with this stuff already.

[natina]

BLACK SUPER HERO and the WHITE SIDE KICK SUPER HERO!


30-year-old Brittany "Bree" Newsome of Raleigh

30-year-old James Ian Tyson of Charlotte

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-3...er-taking-down


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_7698598.html


http://bluenationreview.com/exclusiv...-disobedience/


http://www.wltx.com/story/news/2015/...ouse/29384039/

Two people charged with taking down Confederate flag given $3,000 bond each and allowed to leave the state

http://www.breakingnews.com/item/201...tyson-who-ass/

[EZWind]

The flag is not the problem .... I had discussions with people in the south about the confederate flag I am black so it was interesting to hear them explain it.

...I imagine it certainly must have been

I understood why they viewed the flag in that manner.For some, while the south had a hell of a history, they still have some pride in their heritage.

....well, I am white, and I'm sorry but I still just don't see it. "Pride"? In that "heritage"? nope...unacceptable.
...my hat's off to you for being so understanding. Your critique, while well reasoned, I think still misses the mark...that symbol is more a part of the problem than you give it credit for.
....all I can say is this: we spent a coupla weeks a few years back traveling thru Germany and Austria...Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna....I'm certain a great many of those folks had a heritage of fine upstanding friends and family members who lost their lives in the conflict back in the 1940s, yet nowhere did we ever see a Nazi flag flying in front of any gov't buildings or even so much as a swastika bumper sticker anywhere. Why not? Because the thing is a symbol of evil, no matter how much of a good ole boy your grandfather was.