Why I love America

[leatherman]

Thanks for your quick witted humor, it made my day   

my southern sense of hospitality and gentility  hopes there aren't hard feelings between us about this flag issue. I've had these discussions with many of my (Northern) "Yankee" friends and we've learned to agree to disagree.

Me, and my peers in my neighborhood and in my baptist high school (in NC of course) were always just taught that the Confederate flag was a symbol of the South during the war. It's displayed on monuments, state flags, and government building throughout the South (maybe the North should have crushed these displays a bit more during Reconstructionism, so they wouldn't be around today; but they were having enough problems with the 10% plan, carpetbaggers, taxing the south, finishing the job of abolishing slavery and giving voting rights to the ex-slaves). And heck, it just wouldn't be the South if nearly every pickup truck didn't have a shotgun and Rebel flag mounted in the back - and a 6-pack under the seat. ROFL  I really had never heard anyone mention it as a hate symbol until I moved North in the late 80s. I always just thought that people outside the South thought us dweebs for flying the flag of the loser. 

However what has most struck me from this thread is how no one has mentioned the fact that our nation's greatest symbol -- the US flag -- may, in fact, cause angst in at least one group.  Remember, as we were trying to build and grow our own nation, we systematically uprooted and/or killed a huge number of Native Americans to do so.

hello fellow mike (there must be hundreds of us in the world. LOL)!

I thought I had seen a small comment but I can't seem to find it skimming back through the thread. For years I've watched foreigners burning the American Flag for the symbolism it represented to them. With the war in Iraq, I've often worried that we've created a whole new generation of people who will look upon the US Flag as a symbol of death and destruction and hate us for it.

In the end, the Nazi flag, the Confederate flag, and yes, even the US Flag are seen as hatfeul symbols to thousands throughout the world. (Not knowing much about the particulars of British history, I would imagine the Union Jack has a bad rep too. I know my ancestors here during the Revolutionary War didn't look fondly upon that flag.   ) I wouldn't be surprised if EVERY flag ever flown wasn't viewed by some portion of the population as a "hate symbol".

[denb45]

leatherman        I really didn't have any issues around it, I just think it's kinda sad after 150 some odd yrs. that people cannot seem to just get-over-it, what DOES bother me is, the beat-downs, the violence against Blacks, Gays and YES some Whites, that went on and any other negative things that surrounds it's subject matter, but, that's just the ignorance in people, and I can only hope that this changes with time........my otherhalf is White, Republican, and Irish with steel blue eyes, and sometimes we disgree on a lot of things, but, we still can't keep our hands off other after 15yrs.  so, that cancels out a lot of the negativity, like I said before, "It's all good" White , Black , Brown, Asian, Native American, I like it ALL
it's what America is made of