Is the confederate flag considered offensive by the majority of America?

Is most of America offended by mini-skirts?

I can't do anything about the past, and neither can you. I just choose not to be offended about anything. Period. Makes life wonderful! Why use my time, which is my life, to contemplate things I can't do anything about? I'm spending the time to write this to maybe help someone else.

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth - Respectfully Sir, I think there is connection. The same states that fail to support their education systems, are the same states that refuse to allow workers to unionize, supported Jim Crow laws, fought tooth and nails against desegregation, and continue tot his day to deny people the right to vote by any toll available. The South as a whole, has a lot of growing up to do.

CW3 Kevin Storm - BUT...if you will look where are the hq for the hate groups located? Not in the South mostly northern states...the nation has a lot of growing up to do...if the South has all the problems why were all the riots in MN and other northern, midwestern and northeast states with respect to the BLM movement and the treatment of minorities? Didn't hear about that down here did you? NO because we have grown tremendously...we aren't the same South that everyone has been told we are. We have grown but we have a long way to go but we don't have a monopoly on it...and no, there is no correlation between formal education and the other.

I'm sorry Major but with all due respect the symbolism of the Confederate battle flag is by definition OFFENSIVE to anyone of color. Many of the people that still fly the flag are just Sad and Pathetic. I truly feel sorry for them.

I agree with you Major, I am a Civil War reenactor and I can attest that the majority of those who fly the flag after the battles are over and they go home, don't have a racist bone in our body, but the majority of reenactors are the minority , the majority of those across the country who do fly it are racists. This in turn makes those of us who aren't racist, the bad guys.

I attended an institution that has deep southern roots and was born prior to the confederacy, we championed the flag and the south. Does that make us racists? We even had black students in support of the flag and if Al Sharpton knew that he'd have a heart attack

1SG John Millan
Excuses, excuses, excuses. If you can make no better reason to keep a symbol of hate than a heritage of treason you honestly have no argument.

It is important to note that in The Fugitive Slave act, which required escaped Slaves to be captured and forcefully returned to their Southern "masters", (allowed bounty hunters such as Mr. Bowie the ability to plié their disgusting trade,) was passed by the US Congress, in 1850 and signed by President Filmore under the Stars and Stripes. Does this make the Stars and Stripes a symbol of slavery and racism?

".. the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave, and made them liable to a fine of $1,000 (about $28,000 in present-day value). Law-enforcement officials everywhere were required to arrest persons suspected of being a runaway slave on as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf.[6] In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was subject to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers who captured a fugitive slave were entitled to a bonus or promotion for their work.

Slave owners needed only to supply an affidavit to a Federal marshal to capture an escaped slave. Since any suspected slave was not eligible for a trial, the law resulted in the kidnapping and conscription of free blacks into slavery, as suspected fugitive slaves had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against accusations."

Also, 1LT L S can you explain why President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 only "freed" the Slaves in the Southern States while leaving the Slaves in the Northern allied border States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, still enslaved until the 13th amendment was enacted in 1865? Didn't President Lincoln's actions prolong the chains of slavery on the Slaves of the Border States for 2 additional and unnecessary years? Again, this was done under the American Flag, not the Flag of the Confederacy. The Genuine hero's through all this were not the politicians, nor the generals, but rather those who risked their lives, freedom, and fortunes on the Underground Railroad, shuttling escaped Slaves into Canada against the laws of the United States of America.

Lastly, some could find it troubling that others wish to celebrate the deaths of 600,000 - 1 million Americans in a costly and bloody war, when ALL other slave owning countries in the Western Hemisphere (aside from Haiti) were able to end slavery without a costly war. Prohibiting the expansion of Slavery into the new territories was a great start, abolishing the Fugitive slave act of 1850 WOULD have been a great addition, and the oncoming industrialization of the western culture would have made Slavery an economic impossibility in a very short time without the bloodshed, turmoil, and economic losses that lasted for decades after the War Between the States.

In order to forego any assertions to the contrary, I would like to reiterate that the freeing of the American Slaves WAS a positive, and much needed result of the War, but it was neither the reason for the initiation of hostilities, nor likely the primary motive for the North's desire to keep the Southern States as unwilling members of the Union.
As always, Respectful regards.

Goods info 1LT L S.... Though I don't hold such reverence toward General Sherman, and his march of terror that would have put most Military officers of the day, and any American Officer of today in jail for Atrocities, and War Crimes. Sherman's tactics were then, and are now considered Crimes of war perpetrated not against military targets, but instead against the civilian populace of the South. Admire the man as you wish, considering his actions, I view him as a Pragmatist War criminal. The following is a except from a book Review on Sherman's March/Massacre to the sea....
"From the Official Records, a Colonel Adin Underwood of Massachusetts described Sherman’s gratuitous bombing and burning of Atlanta after the Confederate Army had left the city as having burned to the ground “37 percent of the city” according to Sherman’s military engineers. This included many private homes and even churches.

An Ohio infantryman is quoted as describing “an ocean of fire” all throughout Atlanta. Eventually, at least “two-thirds of Atlanta lay in ashes” according to the Official Records. A Major Nichols was told that “the holocaust devoured no fewer than five thousand buildings.”

When Sherman’s chief military engineer, Captain O.M Poe, voiced dismay over seeing so many corpses of women and children in the streets of Atlanta, and informed Sherman that the day-and-night bombardment of the city was of no military significance, Sherman coldly called the corpses “a beautiful sight” that would quicken the ending of the war (Michael Fellman, Citizen Sherman, p. 184). There were approximately 4,000 private homes in Atlanta before Sherman’s bombing, with only around 400 left standing.

Sherman left a paper trail that was obviously intended to cover his murderous tracks, but at times he issued direct orders to murder civilians. Bothered by his inability to apprehend Confederate snipers who had been shooting at his railroad trains, he sent the following order to a General Louis D. Watkins: “Cannot you send over about Fairmount and Adairsville, burn ten or twelve houses of known secessionists, kill a few at random, and let them know it will be repeated every time a train is fired on . . ?” (John Walters, Merchant of Terror: General Sherman and Total War, p. 137). In order to carry out such war crimes, Sherman biographer Lee Kennett writes of how “the New York regiments were . . . filled with big city criminals and foreigners fresh from the jails of the Old World.” It took a special kind of “soldier” to carry out Sherman’s war crimes. (Lee Kennett, Marching Through Georgia, p. 279).

The Official Records also record how federal soldiers extorted money from Southern civilians by demanding “insurance” payments to avoid having their homes ransacked and burned down. A Major James Austin Connolly is quoted in the following way in response to reports that Southerners were hiding their valuables from thieving U.S. Army soldiers:

“Let them do it if they dare. We’ll burn every house, barn, church, and everything else we come to; we’ll leave their families homeless without food; their towns will all be destroyed and nothing but the most complete desolation will be found in our track. “

The Official Records also write of how Northern reporters associated with Republican Party newspapers often accompanied Sherman’s “bummers” as they were called, and then entertained the folks up North with tales of their raping, pillaging, plundering, burning, and murdering. One Northern reporter is quoted as saying of Sherman’s rampaging looters:

“If the spoil were ample, the depradators were satisfied, and went off in peace; if not, everything was destroyed . . . . Hogs were bayoneted to bleed; chickens, geese, and turkeys knocked over and hung in garlands . . . cows and calves . . . are shot . . . . the furniture [of private homes] is smashed to pieces, music is pounded out of . . . pianos with the ends of muskets.”

Another federal soldier is quoted as saying “I rather feel sorry for some of the women who cried and begged so piteously for the soldiers to leave them a little,” but nevertheless, “extermination [of the civilian population] is our only means now.”

When Sherman reached Hardeeville, South Carolina, one of his bummers is quoted in the Official Records as saying that “In a few hours a town of half century’s growth is thus leveled to the ground.” This even included a church where “First the pulpit and the seats were torn out . . . . Many axes were at work.” This is undoubtedly an example of what the Lincoln cult means when they refer to “military infrastructure.”

One of Sherman’s degradations was known as his “war on dogs.” A U.S. Army Colonel is quoted in the Official Records as saying, “We were determined that no dogs should escape . . . we exterminate all. The dogs were easily killed. All we had to do was to bayonet them.”

By the time Sherman was done with South Carolina, one of his officers boasted in the Official Records that “We have . . . burnt one city, the capital, and most of the villages on our route as well as most barns, outbuildings and dwelling houses, and every house that escaped fire has been pillaged.” This was no “family myth,” as the Lincoln cult shamelessly claims, but the words of a senior officer in Sherman’s army.

Sherman’s “march to the sea” was nothing new: he had been waging total war on the civilian population of the South for years. In 1862 he ordered the complete destruction through fire of the town of Randolph, Tennessee, near Memphis. Around that time, Sherman wrote a letter to his wife saying that “extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least part of the trouble, but the people” in general, was his intention. (Cited in John Walters, Merchant of Terror, p. 61).

In 1863 Sherman ordered the systematic bombardment of Jackson, Mississippi every five minutes, day and night. The city was sacked, looted, and destroyed, after which Sherman boasted in a letter to Grant that “the [civilian] inhabitants are subjugated. They cry aloud for mercy. The land is devastated for 30 miles around.” (Cited in Walters, Merchant of Terror, p. 101). He also boasted of the complete destruction of Meridian, Mississippi: “For five days, ten thousand of our men worked hard and with a will, in that work of destruction, with axes, sledges, crowbars, clawbars, and with fire, and I have no hesitation in pronouncing the work well done. Meridian . . . no longer exists.” (Walters, Merchant of Terror, p. 116). This, too, took place after the Confederate Army was long gone from the area.

James McPherson estimated that some 50,000 Southern civilians perished during the War to Prevent Southern Independence, but the true figure is probably much higher. Sherman himself boasted of how his “bummers” destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of private property and walked off with hundreds of millions of dollars more. There are thousands of pictures of the burned out Southern landscape in the wake of Sherman’s “march” in addition to all the Official Records that record his war crimes.

But of course in war, the victors are never prosecuted. This probably explains why Sherman – and all the other Union Army top command, including Lincoln himself, became more and more murderous when it came to Southern civilians in the latter years of the war. They all understood that if the South was victorious, it would have been well within its rights to hang all of them as war criminals."

SSG Dwight Amey Another link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HiFuwWGZ0c also this link it is the first of a three part series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83QDzmsLyEs i also have a couple of books at home I can share later this evening.

SFC James Turner, thanks for the information. I remember in 1978 I had an argument with my history 5th grade teacher on the N word. I eventually got his point with long conversations with my parents and Roots did not help things either. Roots showed black slaves as people who were murdered, raped, families purposely broken up. Like they were less than human. The textbook referred to slaves as this word and how it is a word that identified me in 1978. Well, I was offended because I did not want to be hung from a tree like was the case during Jim Crow. I wanted to be regarded as an American. At least that is want I felt like and nothing less. Since then textbooks have gotten too political and history like the example you preset was non-existent throughout the rest of my grade school education in Merced California.

MSgt Manuel Diaz, I am spot on the point. I bring up Woodrow Wilson to demonstrate that the north did not give a hoot about the black population. I am sure during the 400 some years blacks were enslaved the north and south politicians never viewed the black slaves as a worthy form of human being. I am not naive enough to know that all people had it bad in these times. I understand slavery was a cultural and historical fact. How many hangings of the indentured slaves on a way to terrorize them into submission and obedience did the Irish and other indentured servants endure? How many families of the indentured servants were barred from reading, broken up on purpose, and language and culture stripped away. I held in my hand a slave bible in a class while going to Colorado State. It read basically that God wants slaves to be good and obedient to their slaves masters. Obviously taking out of context the meaning of slaves in biblical times than American slave trade time. For example, biblical times in the Middle East did not condone mistreating slaves as if they were subhumans.

My mention of Woodrow Wilson was intentional and deliberate to prove that yes the Civil War was not about Slavery entirely, because north and the south wanted to keep their machinery of wealth building preserved.

Fact: Abolishing slavery would have crippled the southern economy. I know this is a fact, so slavery is "a" reason why the civil war happened. Not indentured servants or any other form of human forced labor but slavery.

I too want us to get over slavery. Do you know why we will not any time soon? Jim Crow. Jim Crow was an extension of the culture of slavery. Practiced by the south and for the first time as a government agency started by Woodrow Wilson. Why? Why would Woodrow Wilson authorize segregation in the federal government and it last until President Truman? Because, slavery was a reality that the country accepted as just another form of wealth building. Of course you can't go on hanging and murdering your workers so eventually the moral side of our Constitution has to be corrected. But 1968? I was born in 1969.

I am sorry to focus on slavery but aint no way I am going to let our up and growing children forget the concept of immigrants.

If they get wif that blacks were never intended to be citizens then when our economy goes to crap we will be the first target for crap as the cause.

I already here it when people and politicians talk about welfare. If you listen closely, the insinuation is without welfare our country would be rolling in no debt and all white people would have their taxes. Just listen. I do. Remember indentured servants were a higher form of citizens mainly because they were not hung in mass numbers for 400 year.

SSG WTF!?!? Name one positive aspect of the confederacy or the confederate battle flag! Was it the traitorous insurrection or the 1,264,000 dead or slavery? Really?

It represents Southern culture which includes hospitality and courtesy that are considered bizarre in other parts of the country. When I was growing up in Mississippi I remember blacks as well as whites taking pride in that flag. That doesn't change the fact that for some it represents horrible things, however it's still a symbol and if you see someone using a symbol... your best bet is to ask them what that symbol means to them.

By the way, I don't fly the Confederate flag because it has racist connotations and I don't want to unintentionally communicate to some racist that I condone his hatred.

SSG (Join to see) - Precisely this: if you fly the flag, I'm NOT going to ask what it means. Maybe I get an intelligent discussion, maybe I get spit on. Juice ain't worth the squeeze.

I have friends and family that fly the flag for other than racist reasons. I encourage them to reconsider the message they are sending, even though their intent is not to support racism, it's clearly interpreted that way by many.

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad, sorry for the misunderstanding. Look at it from my perspective though... your image had no other context other than your caption. If it was panned out a bit, showing the museum display, I would have seen how it related to what you said.

Looks great on top of the old General Lee Charger but ask yourself this, is the Nazi flag "historical".

The Swastika on the flag far outdates the Nazi's adoption of it, and it had nothing to do with a National Socialist Worker's party.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/symbol-swastika-and-its-12000-year-old-history-001312

For some it definitely conjures up slavery and inequality... for others it is nostalgia for a simple way of life without big government... for still others it is remembrance for the bravery of southern/confederate troops...depends on the beholder...and all of his or her life experiences.

Well said

SFC (Join to see) Well said, SFC. Well said. I remember a song from my youth sung by Tom T. Hall. Yes, it's an old country song but the line is memorable. The song is "Old dogs, Children & watermelon wine." The line, "God bless little children while they're still too young to hate." I remember growing up in the 60's and having friends of all colors. We played together and nobody cared. This was in the South, in Tallahassee. This song reminds me that we are all born the same in the eyes of God and have to be taught to hate or fear.

Exactly. Anonymous service member. Not sure who you are but any servicemember worth his/her salt wouldn't be scared.

Your opinion is invalid. Especially if you're an NCO as you claim to be.

I have one hanging on the wall of my garage with and Irish Harp on it.

Folks tend to forget that Slavery was legal in the North even after the Emancipation Proclamation. The lines were never so cleanly divided as simply a difference of opinion regarding Slavery.