I wish I liked bananas.

[u][b]Before someone tries to get into a big ass argument with me, let me tell you this.[/b][/u] [u]Facts about the Union States:[/u] 1) Blacks in the Union Army could not fight alongside their white brethren, they were mostly in their own regiment. 2) Discrimination and racism was common among the Union Army towards black people and soldiers. 3)The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the South, it did not free slaves in the North. Slavery was later outlawed in an amendment after the war. 4)Abraham Lincoln even once said that he believed that the white man was the superior race and he would have ended the war without freeing the slaves if he could. 5) The flag of the United States of America flew over slave ships some 70+ years before the Civil War even started. 6) General Ulysses S. Grant owned slaves even during the war and wrote that if the war was about slavery that he would refuse to take part in it. [u]Facts about the Confederate States:[/u] 1) Blacks who fought for the Confederate Army often fought alongside whites. 3) Most slaves in the South were freed before or during 1863, two years before the war ended. 4) Only 4.8% of whites in the South owned slaves. 5) Around 3,000 free blacks in the South owned over 30,000 black slaves. 6) Confederate General Robert E. Lee released all of his slaves 20 years before the war started and before the war he wrote that slavery was a political evil. 7) Lee was asked to join the Union Army but refused when his home State of Virginia seceded because he wanted to defend where he was from. The war was not mainly fought over slavery. It was mainly over state's rights. While slavery was a minor factor, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was planning on outlawing slavery in the south after the war was over. Taking the right to wave any Confederate Flag is restricting our 1st amendment rights and freedom of speech. And for those of you who are going to ask about the Ku Klux Klan, their main flag they use is the American Flag. They are just a bunch of dumbass fücks that need to get their heads knocked together. I am from the South and I do have Confederate flags. I have friends who are black and also fly Confederate flags. When I go to flea markets just about every Sunday, I usually see black people wearing and selling Confederate flags. I in no way advocate slavery, racism of any race, or white supremacy. I believe that all men and women should be treated equally.

I dont have a confederate flag, dont care to own one, but I still think that its an important part of history. Showing it off pridefully is kinda distasteful, but just having one around for its value in history isn't all that bad.

The flag isn't racist at all,just some people like to think it is.

People can exercise their free speech by waving hate flags and traitor rags. The rest of us can exercise our free speech by telling those people what assholes they are.

Union was just as racist as the confederacy buddy.

You know what I can't grasp? Flags. Period. I can't fathom how anyone can be so devoted to a colored piece of fabric, and believe it's something more. When we get past this tribalistic mentality, we'll actually start making some progress.

Slaves were forced to work in fields, let's make fields illegal

I have a confederate flag. It doesn't stand for racism or anything like that. To me and everyone else I know uses it to show southern pride. I've never heard of anyone having it to show racism or supremacy or shit like that. And I live in Mississippi. So that should say something cuz we're about as southern as you can get. It's always stood for southern pride. It has never stood for racism or slavery at all in history. People just interpreted it wrong and now they get all offended over it because they think they know everything about it when they don't. And don't try to compare it to the [url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law]-godwinslaw!-[/url] flag because they are two different things. That flag DID stand for supremacy and wanting to conquer people and get rid of Jews.

it's considered free speech. however i was always perplexed as to why anyone would want to display a reminder of their oppressive traitorous ancestral roots rather than picking a less embarrassing set of ancestors to honor. i guess there are still a lot of bad anti americans running around.

The Confederate flag stands for more freedom these days than the American flag. Under no circumstances can the government take away our First Amendment and ban these flags on personal property, state flags, clothing, etc.. The general public is misinformed about the cause of the Civil War. They're misinformed as to what the Confederate flag stands for. It stands for a country. Not for racism or any ideology. It stood for the Confederate States of America, same as the Chinese flag represents a country, not its leaders and their ideas and laws. It's differentiates from other countries. These days, i support it because it stands for states rights more than anything. It represents the CSA, which [i]had[/i] to fight because, similar to what is happening today, the US government sought to take away states' right to choose, for its people to have a say in what they wanted.

Do you actually know what happened to start the Civil War or do you just go off of what History books and teachers tell you? History is written by the victor. The war did not start over slavery -- Lincoln even says this. The Emancipation Proclamation was viewed as a political ploy by Lincoln by Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and numerous other European countries. The emancipation proclamation did not even free slaves within states not in rebellion -- including the border states. The Battle Flag was not a symbol of slavery. The Confederate Flag was not a symbol of slavery. It's been skewed throughout history to represent something it was not intended to.