Originally posted by paul
Well, you didn't offer one.
I'll keep guessing, so you can keep pretending no one from the north can understand.
So you're saying it's about history?
So is the Swatstika.
I never said no one from anywhere could never understand.
I said there are varying reasons people fly it. Some most assuredly do so out of racist reasons. Some do so out of a sense of living history. Some do so out of simple defiance. Some do so just to annoy the hell out of those who don't like it. Some do so because their parents did. Some do so to celebrate their Southern-ness. Some do so and have no real idea why. Some do so out of genuine pride in Southern history and heritage, and I'll soon show you the difference in the two, since you fail to see it. I don't fly the thing at all, as do most people living here. I know exactly what it symbolizes to me, and it's none of your or anyone else's business unless I choose to share those reasons, which I do not at this time. I reserve the right to share or withhold anything I please. It is still a free country.
In short, what it's ABOUT is as individual as the persons who display it. Stereotyping won't work. This is not one of those issues that can be tied up in a neat little bundle, labeled, and poked and prodded at will for the rest of time. Sorry to disappoint.
Now as to the history v heritage issue....I can teach you the history of Boston, Mass. It is well documented. I could never hope to teach anyone the heritage of that region. I have never lived it. Oh, I could do the research and find and learn some of the folklore, some of the customs, but I could no more tell you what it means to be a Bostonian that I could tell you what it means to be a left-handed albino Kuwaiti woman. I've never been either.
Now, MY return question is this: Why is it such a thorn in your side? If you are genuinely curious and want to know the answers to things out of a real interest, that's one thing. If all you are after is more fuel to an already healthy fire, then you're far from the first. Either way, I'm more than happy to try and help you learn. When it gets to the point of sticks and stones, or finger-pointing and "Hey, look at the backward hillbilly", I'm out. Been too many generations of THAT already.