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Vandalizing a Confederate Flag

 
 
Reply Thu 17 Aug, 2017 06:50 pm
So people flying Confederate flags really bug me. There are quite a few of them in my immediate area. I recognize that they have a right to fly them. I also realize that most of them are either completely ignorant of the meaning of this flag and are completely harmless. It still bugs me. And because the flag has been the subject of controversy these past few years you'd think most people would have the common sense to take theirs down. And yet there seem to be more and more of them all the time.
In my impetuous youth I would have simply stolen or defaced them and that would have been that. Of course when I was young the Confederate flag didn't bother me one bit. I'm older now and want to be (am) a responsible, law abiding citizen. And yet the urge to destroy these symbols of ignorance keeps pushing me. Do I (and every other responsible adult) have a responsibility to do something about our racist neighbors? By not doing anything are we complicit?
I realize that removing their flags won't change anything about them, but at least it would send a message that the community is displeased. Any and all comments are welcome. Including suggestions on how to quickly and quietly destroy a flag!
 
edgarblythe
 
  2  
Reply Thu 17 Aug, 2017 07:10 pm
I suggest you avoid possibly getting killed.
TomTomBinks
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Aug, 2017 09:00 pm
@edgarblythe,
Smile
0 Replies
 
tibbleinparadise
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Aug, 2017 09:54 pm
@TomTomBinks,
Kill em with kindness.

Seriously.

You are in charge of whether or not you allow something to offend you. Stop being offended, stop responding negatively, and the "offending" thing loses its power.

centrox
 
  5  
Reply Thu 17 Aug, 2017 11:45 pm
@tibbleinparadise,
tibbleinparadise wrote:
You are in charge of whether or not you allow something to offend you. Stop being offended, stop responding negatively, and the "offending" thing loses its power.

... if people had known about that strategy in the 1930s and 1940s, then the Nazis would have lost all their power, right?
0 Replies
 
centrox
 
  2  
Reply Fri 18 Aug, 2017 01:22 am
No need for the strategic bomber offensive, D-Day, Stalingrad, etc. We could have done it all by just singing "Kumbayah". And at Nuremberg afterwards. If only we had known!


0 Replies
 
TomTomBinks
 
  2  
Reply Fri 18 Aug, 2017 09:12 am
@tibbleinparadise,
I get what you mean.... but I think it goes beyond just being offended by a symbol. The symbol reflects the views of a person. Those views fly in the face of everything our nation was built on. That means the one flying the symbol does not value the constitution and the freedoms it defines. I think we have to express our displeasure with those that don't value what our constitution guarantees.
I know the constitution guarantees the freedom to not value the constitution, but don't we as a people have a duty to uphold the constitution? Even in just a small way?
Blickers
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Aug, 2017 08:26 pm
@TomTomBinks,
Well, you can always get a group of like minded people together and picket the house.
ossobucotemp
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Aug, 2017 08:59 pm
@TomTomBinks,
Good question, but I've no clue what my immediate neighbors think. They know I love their dogs, even the barking.

I could make a guess re the ones I've conversed with, but not prove it: strongly anti trump.

I don't live in a swell neighborhood, but a sort of sequestered one near interesting landscape.
ossobucotemp
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Aug, 2017 09:20 pm
@ossobucotemp,
I may add that across the street, I take it as one family trying to buy and fix up the neighborhood. I get remodeling and so on, but don't like being a target.

Back in Venice, hub and I were tuned in.
Here, I've never been to the neighborhood meetings - not driving at night.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 10:44 am
If it makes you feel any better, display a lovely gay flag or a BLM flag.

I think going on someone's property and ******* with their **** can get you killed, and in some states, few questions will be asked of the neighbor who does the shooting. Hoping you won't put yourself in that kind of danger.

It is likely people who display that flag are armed and would feel trespassing and handling their property is plenty good reason to shoot.
TomTomBinks
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 07:41 pm
@Blickers,
That would be ideal. However, finding like-minded people willing to do this would be difficult if not impossible. Also, very few would see the picketing as I live in a rural area. Maybe I should put up a sign in the yard saying something like "NAZI" or "Racist Pig" or something similar.
TomTomBinks
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 07:45 pm
@Lash,
By flying a gay flag I would be in effect baiting them into vandalizing MY flag, and then I would get to shoot at them! I don't want to get into a gunfight with my neighbors. Besides, I'm not gay. I know you're right and I shouldn't destroy someone else's property no matter how justified I might feel.
Blickers
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 07:47 pm
@TomTomBinks,
Quote TomTom:
Quote:
very few would see the picketing as I live in a rural area.

Then look at the bright side. That also means very few have seen his flag.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 07:56 pm
@TomTomBinks,
I'm not gay or black either, but I'd be feeling a bit like you--I'd feel a need to respond in a way that was not physically confrontational but that satisfied my need not to stare passively at the Confederate flag every day of my life with no response.

I'd HAVE to do something.

If they have the right to display that flag-&I'm, by law, respecting that right, they can goddam well respect MY right to fly whatfuckingever flag I choose to fly.

Fly your freak flag, baby. I'd be ALL OVER that ****. C'mon. Make yourself proud. Wave at their asses.

Fly your flag.
ehBeth
 
  4  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 08:04 pm
@TomTomBinks,
TomTomBinks wrote:
Besides, I'm not gay.


I'm not gay.
I'm not American.

I sometimes fly a rainbow flag and used to occasionally fly an American flag (til it was stolen). I fly flags to indicate support.

People flying the Confederate flag are supporters of what the flag stands for .
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 08:11 pm
Fly the beautiful rainbow.
0 Replies
 
Blickers
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 08:29 pm
@TomTomBinks,
Just curious. Is this flag attached to their house, or is it flying from a pole they put up in their front yard?

ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 08:35 pm
these are seen all over our block/neighbourhood

http://www.eastyorkchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/eear-poster3.jpg

I wish we didn't need to put them up.
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Aug, 2017 08:39 pm
this thread has made me think about a statement of acknowledgement that is read/spoken at the opening of most public events in Toronto

this is the U of T specific version

https://memos.provost.utoronto.ca/statement-of-acknowledgement-of-traditional-land-pdadc-72/

I (we) wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

I wonder how something like this would go over in the US
 

 
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