National Park Service moves to stop the sale of Confederate flags. What's next?

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 03:06:10 -0400

The National Park Service moved Wednesday to stop sales of the Confederate flag in federal parks, the Loop has learned.

“The National Park Service is asking its cooperating associations, concessions, and partners to voluntarily withdraw sales in their stores of Confederate flags and other items, such as stickers, that depict the Confederate flag as a stand-alone feature,” Park Service spokeswoman Kathy Kupper e-mailed us after we’d inquired early in the day.

The controversy over the display of the flag — sparked by the racist hate killings of nine African-Americans in Charleston, S.C. last week — has prompted that state and others to move to take down such flags at their capitals and to remove monuments honoring odious figures such as a founder of the Ku Klux Klan from government properties.

And giant retailers — such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Sears — have agreed to stop selling items with the battle flag on them.

But the Park Service’s response to our inquiry Wednesday morning may be the first action taken by a federal agency to stop sales of the flags on federal property. The Park Service says there are “over 70 parks in the National Park System [which includes homes, cemeteries and other sites] which have resources that are related to the history of the Civil War.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/24/national-park-service-moves-to-stop-sales-of-confederate-flags/?tid=hpModule_14fd66a0-9199-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239&hpid=z13

National Park Service moves to stop sales of Confederate flags

The NPS is asking park concessions to "voluntarily" take down the items from their shelves.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jun 25 at 2015 3:12 AM

Capt Seid Waddell — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 03:12:24 -0400

This is PC run amok.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 25 at 2015 8:15 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 08:15:04 -0400

Truth.
The Stars and Stripes flew over American slave ships, which transported slaves from Africa to the Caribbean and S America. It flew over the New England states, particularly RI and MA, where prominent families made fortunes in the slave trade, it flew over the US Army units that oversaw ethnic cleansing of American Indians during the Trail of Tears and later conducted a campaign of genocide against the Plains Indians 1860 - 90. The Confederate flags flew over army units that integrated blacks and whites together and defended their homes and families (their point of view). Are we going to remove every symbol that is offensive to someone to be politically correct? There are those that will tell you the American flag is offensive to them. “I don’t know what the hell the fight is about over the Confederate flag. We need to put the American flag down. Because we’ve caught as much hell under that as the Confederate flag,” “Who are we fighting today? It’s the people that carry the American flag.” Farrakhan said this at a recent rally. When he said these things he was met with cheers and applause by those attending the rally. Are we going to be as accepting and say, the American flag should be put in a museum? Are we going to give up our national identity? A Marine moved into a apartment complex he erected a Marine flag in one corner of his balcony and an American flag in the other. This was complained about by his Arabic neighbors as being offensive to them. He put the flags up because he was proud to be a Marine and proud to be an American, not because he was trying to offend anyone. Should he have been forced to remove them?
I don't condone racism, prejudice, dégradation or any other form of intolerance but I also don't believe we should give away ourselves a piece at time until we forget who we are and where we came from.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Jun 25 at 2015 4:57 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:57:35 -0400

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad, to be honest I never realized that the US National Park Service sold Confederate Battle Flags. The only national parks where selling Confederate Battle Flags would make sense are the battlefield parks such as Gettysburg, Antietam, etc. I did not realize there were 70 civil war related national parks.
Hopefully the individual state park services which may sell Confederate memorabilia would be able to sell those items to anybody interested in them.
I expect that booths will be set up outside the civil war focused national parks where shoppers can purchase Confederate and Yankee souvenirs. If that is outlawed expect a thriving black market for confederate flags will develop.

Response by SSG Edward Tilton made Jan 17 at 2018 11:21 PM

SSG Edward Tilton — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 23:21:30 -0500

That day is over