Think Progress was where I saw it first: Florida lawmaker seeks Confederate flag specialty plate.
Florida state Rep. Donald Brown (R) introduced a bill last week to create a “Confederate Heritage” license plate for the state. Saying “it would give motorists a way to show pride in their heritage,” Brown proposes a $25 charge for motorists to purchase a plate with “a shield displaying the rebel battle flag symbol surrounded by several flags from the Civil War era.” The money would benefit “educational programs run by Sons of Confederate Veterans,” which considers the Civil War to be “the Second American Revolution.”
And they even have a picture:
Florida has more specialty license plates than you can imagine. Some are very nice.
North Carolina already offers “Sons of Confederate Veterans” plates, complete with the Treason-In-Defense-Of-Slavery flag. I’m relieved that I’ve never seen one outside the DMV website.
Some say it’s about “heritage, not hate.” I say we need to be more inclusive; it’s about a heritate _of_ hate.
Just so we are clear and don’t get entangled with the r-word, and other labels. Some of my author heroes you should look up are listed below;
2008 BLACK CONFEDERATES
Retired assistant school principal Nelson Winbush, 78, of Kissimmee, Fla., is an African American who has become a passionate promoter and historian of the Confederate States of America, even though it was that entitys secession from the Union that sparked the Civil War. Winbush told the St. Petersburg Times for an October profile that his grandfather had fought for the South, not to retain slavery but because he thought the South was being overtaxed. Winbush became more aggressive in the 1990s, opposing campaigns to remove Confederate flags from government buildings in the South. He has declined to be drawn into the racial implications of the Confederacy, telling the Times,
“Black is nothing other than a darker shade of rebel gray.
J.J. Johnson offers running commentary on the Confederate flag issue in his Internet publication, the Sierra Times.
“I hope some black person is reading this right now and fuming,” he writes in one editorial.
“If you think the Confederate flag is insulting to you, you are being used, or as we say it in the hood, you bein’ played for a fool.”
H.K. Edgerton of North Carolina
“My march is a march of heritage, not one of hate, to bring an awareness of the pride we feel. […] There are folks who look like me who care a lot about Dixie.”
He marched 1300 miles from North Carolina to Texas in Confederate Uniform carrying the Confederate Battle Flag. I have an autographed Confederate Battle Flag he sent me from this march.
“If every African-American would pick up the Confederate flag,” he proclaims, “I would say, ‘Free at last, free at last, God almighty, I am free at last.'”
Sovereign Solutions producer Rich Angell travels to Black Mountain, North Carolina, to meet the legendary H.K. Edgerton.This is a 50 min video interview of The Man, H. K. Edgerton of North Carolina. You will be glad you watched it! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5884282247116339705&hl=en
Southern Heritage 411 believes that when the real truth is known about the War for Southern Independence, there will be a mutual understanding and a shared bond between the races that will result in improved race relations all over our nation.http://www.southernheritage411.com/aboutus.shtml
http://www.southerngrace.biz/bonnieblue/13_hkedgerton.htm
Brothers of Colour Camp Douglas SCV 1507
Black Rebels of the C.S.A.
http://www.thesouthernamerican.org/colour.html
http://www.dixieoutfitters.com/heritage/hke.shtml
Bob Harrison, Historian, 1st Sgt, Co. B 37th Texas Cavalry (a historical reenactment unit) wrote the forward to “Myths of American Slavery” by Walter D. Kennedy.
Col. Michael Kelley – 37th Texas. org has proof of all races who served in the Confederate Army on his site. He presented his research to the national park service.
Other black people, NOT naacp sharpton, jesse type activist, who would agree with me are: Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Larry Elders, the Sage from South Central, Bill Cosby, J. J. Johnson of the Sierra Times, Elizabeth Wright, Walter Williams, H. K. Edgerton of NC, Nelson Wimbish of Kissimmee, FL, Bob Harrison of VA, Jason Whitlock of St. Louis and others you may have seen on TV. These black scholars and patriots dare to say the truth of the matter.
Check it out with some books like these.
The Ten Things You Can’t Say In America, Revised Edition by Larry Elder
Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America
The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds
Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America
Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies and the Special Interests That Divide America (Paperback) by Larry Elder (Author) “Every day, well-meaning liberals sacrifice America’s freedom under the guise of benevolent protection…”
I can guarantee that will be a tough sell to the African American crowd. You wanna talk about sparking a divide or debate over what? A license plate? Not worth it at all.
You wanna show your pride but a confederate hat, don’t parade that flag in front of me on the road.
Perhaps they should be allowed to have their license plate but only if the proceeds are given to the United Negro College Fund.
Great! This will go far in reinforcing the widely held belief that Florida is a back-water, red-neck, hillbilly state- Florida is already known for its illiteracy, its incest practices, police brutality, corrupt politics and its racist history. The plate will serve as a constant reminder of of why the Confederacy lost the Civil War in the first place.
Why doesn’t human rights campaign have its own license plate with the equals sign here in FL to support family values? If people can sport plates here saying choose life, save the dolphins, or ones that glorify hate symbols, gays, recent immigrants, and other groups should be able to have their own plates too. I need to look up the requirements for creating a new plate.
Besides the fact that the Confederate flag is a relic of an armed rebellion against the duly established government of the United States and has no rightful place outside of cemeteries, museums and historical sites…
WHAT CONFEDERATE HERITAGE???
Estimates of the number of men who served in the Confederate armed forces range from as low as 500,000 to as high as 2 million.
Florida provided approximately 15,000 troops to the Confederacy.
Meaning that Florida troops accounted for possibly as little as 3/4 of 1%, or 0.0075, of the fighting men of the Confederacy!
DELAWARE probably has more of a Confederate heritage than Florida, and it fought with the Union!
Somebody PLEASE buy Representative Brown a history book!
Delaware had roughly 2,000 soldiers who fought for the Confederacy and when enough people request them, will qualify for SCV license plates. Nearby states Maryland and Virginia already have them. There is a monument in Georgetown to Confederate Confederate soldiers. Florida has a lot of Confederate heritage and if they want plates they should not be banned from getting them.
As Cajie says, the South didn’t secede over slavery but rather over taxation. That’s why the Mississippi secession statement said, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery” and didn’t mention taxes at all. That’s why the second sentence of the Georgia secession statement is, “For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.” And it does mention duties once in passing while only mentioning slavery 35 times. That’s why the Texas secession statement says that they were “received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery– the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits– a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time.” Although they somehow forgot to mention taxes, they did slip in over 20 mentions of slavery plus a bonus complaint that the Federal Government had failed to protect them from the “Indian savages”. And their firm opposition to taxes being levied on the states by the federal government is why the Confederate Constitution categorically forbade any law restricting slavery but allowed taxes on exports with a two-thirds majority of both Houses. Oh yes, and they weren’t committing treason because they were simply exercising their inalienable right to leave the Union. In fact they were so intent on States Rights that they somehow failed to notice that the Confederate Constitution didn’t include any provisions for a state to withdraw but stated specifically that levying war against the Confederacy or aiding their enemies was treason.
And Cajiedog explains elsewhere how the Union was the real villains in this piece (without displaying any whiff of racism whatsoever). “Imagine living somewhere (on a plantation) for 200 years, all needs taken care of from cradle to grave and then suddenly your home, your livlihood is burnt to the ground, and your family is scattered to the wind. This was the evil of lincoln’s war; a evil you have been taught was a great act by the USA. It is pure stupid not to see that these black ex-slaves were distraught for years, scared to death of the blue coats, and terrified of the lawless blacks among them. THIS HAS NOT CHANGED; This is why blacks have the highest crime rate per their population in the USA.”
why can’t the we have freedom of speech. FOR EVERYONE, I will get one of these tags when they come out. I am not some back woods red neck. But I have family that did fight in the Civil War. Like it or not. They did what they were told to do so why not honor them. That is just like saying you do not care about the soliders fighting now because you do not agree with the cause ( if there is one) These were people, family members, brothers, friends ETC that gave their lives and they should be honored!!!