Posted on Aug 26, 2016
The Confederate flag is about to fade from the nation's v | MilitaryTimes
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TITLE: The Confederate flag is about to fade from the nation's veterans cemeteries
The Confederate flag is being blocked from positions of prominence at veterans cemeteries nationwide, but it won’t be banned entirely.
In a letter to lawmakers made public this week, interim Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters said officials will no longer allow the controversial flag to be flown on flagpoles at the federally funded cemeteries or allow other flag imagery to be prominently displayed there.
However, the department will not stop individuals from using smaller versions of the flag or items bearing its image on individual graves, as long as there is no cost to the government. Flags placed on gravesites will not be banned by local staff unless they conflict with other local rules on permitted displays.
Previous policy had allowed the Confederate Flag to be flown on Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day (which is celebrated on different dates depending on the state), or specially designated events by local administrators. It was also permitted for year-long use at cemeteries where Confederate soldiers are buried in mass graves.
The move comes after months of debate over use of the flag at VA cemeteries. In his letter, Walters called the new policy a compromise between respecting veterans’ past and the flag's perceived racist overtones.
“We are aware of the concerns of those who wish to see Confederate flags removed from public venues because they are perceived by many as a symbol of racial intolerance,” he wrote. “We are also aware that the national cemeteries originated during the Civil War … as such, flags of the Confederacy are also viewed by some merely as historical symbols.”
Democratic House members earlier this year attempted to ban the flag from cemeteries in a series of legislative moves, but were unsuccessful. In a statement this week, several of those advocates praised the new policy.
“While racist individuals and groups continue to embrace the Confederate battle flag, it has never been more clear that this anachronistic symbol of hatred, slavery and insurrection should not be promoted or gratuitously displayed on federal property,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif.
Iraq war veteran Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-N.M., said the flag “does not represent the values our veterans fought to defend, and we shouldn’t permit it to be displayed at all in places where we pay tribute to their sacrifices.”
The policy is expected to go into effect later this year.
The Confederate flag is being blocked from positions of prominence at veterans cemeteries nationwide, but it won’t be banned entirely.
In a letter to lawmakers made public this week, interim Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters said officials will no longer allow the controversial flag to be flown on flagpoles at the federally funded cemeteries or allow other flag imagery to be prominently displayed there.
However, the department will not stop individuals from using smaller versions of the flag or items bearing its image on individual graves, as long as there is no cost to the government. Flags placed on gravesites will not be banned by local staff unless they conflict with other local rules on permitted displays.
Previous policy had allowed the Confederate Flag to be flown on Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day (which is celebrated on different dates depending on the state), or specially designated events by local administrators. It was also permitted for year-long use at cemeteries where Confederate soldiers are buried in mass graves.
The move comes after months of debate over use of the flag at VA cemeteries. In his letter, Walters called the new policy a compromise between respecting veterans’ past and the flag's perceived racist overtones.
“We are aware of the concerns of those who wish to see Confederate flags removed from public venues because they are perceived by many as a symbol of racial intolerance,” he wrote. “We are also aware that the national cemeteries originated during the Civil War … as such, flags of the Confederacy are also viewed by some merely as historical symbols.”
Democratic House members earlier this year attempted to ban the flag from cemeteries in a series of legislative moves, but were unsuccessful. In a statement this week, several of those advocates praised the new policy.
“While racist individuals and groups continue to embrace the Confederate battle flag, it has never been more clear that this anachronistic symbol of hatred, slavery and insurrection should not be promoted or gratuitously displayed on federal property,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif.
Iraq war veteran Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-N.M., said the flag “does not represent the values our veterans fought to defend, and we shouldn’t permit it to be displayed at all in places where we pay tribute to their sacrifices.”
The policy is expected to go into effect later this year.
The Confederate flag is about to fade from the nation's v | MilitaryTimes
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It is History and only Clowns who have no Real Knowledge or Grasp of history and the Past Try to Delete it... what is next the memorials and then the Head stones then the elimination from the History Books... Oh Wait they are already doing that crap and then total rewrite of History... But they started that 45 years ago...
So Darn typical of a Communist Socialist State... Delete or Discredit History and the past when you disagree with it...
So Darn typical of a Communist Socialist State... Delete or Discredit History and the past when you disagree with it...
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PFC Steve Cox
SFC G. Smith; You are absolutely correct! This is not the American way. We have seen the return of McCarthyism in the house oversight committee hearings and the past 3 years of their efforts interfering with the POTUS administration and his rights to run that administration. The abuse of the courts system and the blatant blocking maneuvers the ACLU and other organized resistance efforts has been a national disgrace only equaled by the Red Scare and Joe McCarthy's hearings with the unforgettable question, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?".
I served during the Vietnam war, so my time is not going to be much more, but for the younger people, I fear what is going to be coming from these hypersensitive, aggressively ignorant and desensitized to violent acts people who are still in the public schools being warped - or as they call it educated by today's standards. When they become old enough to be elected to Congress, the Senate, or other high office, and they are on the federal courts including the Supreme Court, this will not be America anymore.
This fate can be avoided, but not going the way things are today. I wonder if it is possible to recover the lost common sense, decency, respect and honor Americans used to have and teach to the children? I'm just glad my parents, both Korean War vets, and my Grandfather did not live to see the mess America is in now.
Like it was after the Civil War, when the KKK was born, and when FDR wrote the order for Japanese Americans to be confined in internment camps for the duration of the war, two of many things Democrats of today bring up as evils of the Republican Party, today despite the historic record to the contrary that clearly shows the Democrat Party was neck deep in both situations, the left continues to revise, erase or twist the truth and present it as all the fault of the Republicans. With that in operation I don't see how we can ever recover the truth.
I served during the Vietnam war, so my time is not going to be much more, but for the younger people, I fear what is going to be coming from these hypersensitive, aggressively ignorant and desensitized to violent acts people who are still in the public schools being warped - or as they call it educated by today's standards. When they become old enough to be elected to Congress, the Senate, or other high office, and they are on the federal courts including the Supreme Court, this will not be America anymore.
This fate can be avoided, but not going the way things are today. I wonder if it is possible to recover the lost common sense, decency, respect and honor Americans used to have and teach to the children? I'm just glad my parents, both Korean War vets, and my Grandfather did not live to see the mess America is in now.
Like it was after the Civil War, when the KKK was born, and when FDR wrote the order for Japanese Americans to be confined in internment camps for the duration of the war, two of many things Democrats of today bring up as evils of the Republican Party, today despite the historic record to the contrary that clearly shows the Democrat Party was neck deep in both situations, the left continues to revise, erase or twist the truth and present it as all the fault of the Republicans. With that in operation I don't see how we can ever recover the truth.
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AN Richard Russell
Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it! Forgot who said that but learned it when I was young and it stuck with me. I hate political correctness we need to keep these symbols of history to learn from and understand the past either good or bad it's real history.
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This is interesting. Though, the confederates lost, it was still a major part of America history. I have to stand by the college in Chicago on this one. This new age of "sensitivity and being easily offended" has to stop - it is destroying America. When did being "offended" replace good old fashioned humor - or calling someone an idiot, laughing, and moving on? No, instead we tend to fixate on something, blow it out of proportion, and take everything so personal it gives us "PTSD" - there is a woman suing Starbucks for botching her iced coffee claiming that the mistake gave her PTSD - I want you to think about that.. This needs to stop. We, as a nation, need to be bent over Lady Liberty's knee and spanked. Stop acting like an imbecile and grow up already!
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SSG Bill Mc
That's probably THE MOST logical, rational and reasonable comment I've seen; not just about the Confederate Battle flag, ETC ... but the shape of this country overall. When I read about colleges and universities with their "safe zones," and prior to that, the Army and their "Stress Cards" for boot camp trainees ... well, we're letting the progressive attitudes taught in our colleges for years, being introduced by their grads, now teachers and Human Resources "professionals," indoctrinate our society into a bunch of sissies.
PTSD over COFFEE? It seems anyone offended these days is claiming "PTSD!"
PTSD over COFFEE? It seems anyone offended these days is claiming "PTSD!"
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AN Richard Russell
Let that women take a trip back in time to when my Grandfather was in the trenches of World War 1 and be shelled for 14 days and had to remove the dead then she can claim PTSD or any combat situation today for a week or so of fighting seeing her friends and companions killed, then she can make her claim.
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Long Past Due for this. I understand the Romanticism but time to retire it.
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PFC Steve Cox
Woodrow Wilson was a progressive who advocated for eugenics, or the extermination of the black race, the mentally ill and impaired, and basically anyone he deemed unfit. You can't trust anything he ever wrote about the Civil War or much anything else. His novel, The Administrator, outlined his philosophy, which was that certain classes of people are inherently unable to govern themselves without being compelled to by the administrative class, of which he deemed himself to be. He is also the only US President to have a stroke while in office, and in his incapacitation his wife and others in the White House took care of his duties without revealing his infirmity to the nation. They did so to prevent the Vice President from taking office in his stead. The Vice President was Thomas Marshall, who Wilson and his wife and advisors despised because he was a conservative, did not want to take Wilson's place because that would disrupt all the plans Wilson had for the country. Instead of calling him "The Administrator" people should have called WW the Dictator. His book outlined who would be in charge of government and who would ultimately hold all the wealth and power in the country - in his novel. The truth of the matter was realized when he was elected President. Marshall is to this day the only Vice President to be targeted for assassination while in office.
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AN Richard Russell
Don't forget Wilson also allowed the Federal Reserve Bank as our national central bank and our country has been in huge debt since. The 1929 crash and Great Depression, other crashes, buyouts, and financial disasters since! The Blacks won their freedom in 1865 but it took over a hundred years more to get equal rights. Now they are losing their rights by the GOP changing the equal rights act. Yet the government divides America by screaming about a flag while changing the equal rights and voting act so blacks and other minority American citizens can't vote!
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