World’s Largest Swastika, Um, Confederate Flag to Fly in Tampa



When I was a kid growing up in North Carolina, I bought into the idea that the Confederate flag was a symbol of regional pride. The meaning of symbols can change over time, however, and whatever the flag may have stood for in the past is completely irrelevant now.

Today, like the Nazi swastika, this flag is an icon for 1) violence, 2) hatred and 3) failure. So why anyone would have this kind of pride in it is hard to fathom:

UPDATE:

The i’s are dotted, t’s are crossed and a 139-foot flagpole is ready to fly the Stars and Bars over one of the busiest highway interchanges in Florida.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tampa plan soon to raise what they claim is the world’s largest Confederate flag on a private triangle of land tucked near where Interstates 75 and 4 meet. The flag measures 50 feet by 30 feet.

John Adams, commander of the organization’s Florida division, has spearheaded the flag project, which includes plans for an accompanying memorial park. And he wants to make sure that the only objections the group faces are based on opinion, not the law.

“You’re going to hear some complaints about it for sure,” Adams said. “But it’s a free country as far as I know.”

To some, particularly across many Southern states, the rebel flag represents a rich heritage that includes fighting and dying for the Confederate cause during the Civil War. To others, the flag represents dark memories attached to slavery and racial inequality.

One of those people is Curtis Stokes, president of the NAACP in Hillsborough County, who hopes that a groundswell of opposition to raising the flag might convince the Sons of Confederate Veterans to reconsider.

That’s an unlikely scenario, according to Adams. Nearly a decade ago, the 220 members in the state’s Sons of Confederate Veterans group launched a project called “Flags Across Florida” in response to a decision by state officials to remove the Confederate flag from a place of prominence near the state capitol in Tallahassee.

Time to find a new logo for pride in the South.

12 Responses »

  1. GDad June 6, 2008 @ 6:40 am

    This reminds me of this Onion article about the South rising again.

    I sincerely hope that the southern states are able to move past their reputation and history of this sort of thing.

  2. J June 7, 2008 @ 7:22 pm

    It’s interesting that those who feel the need to comment on things they know nothign about. It’s not the “Stars and Bars”. If it was you wouldn’t even know it. If it was any of numerous Confederate flags, national or otherwise, you would not know it.

  3. J June 7, 2008 @ 7:23 pm

    It’s interesting that those who feel the need to comment on things they know nothing about. It’s not the “Stars and Bars”. If it was you wouldn’t even know it. If it was any of numerous Confederate flags, national or otherwise, you would not know it.

  4. Jimmy L Shirley Jr June 21, 2008 @ 9:06 pm

    All the tactics used by the Waffen SS version in the yankee army, Sherman and Sheridan, were copied by the German armies and State run militia, the SS, during Hitler’s reign. How bass ackwards that “you people” refer to the noble banner of the victim of the American SS as a swastika.
    The slash and burn waged upon Southern civilians, the rape, looting and murder waged upon the Southern civilians including the poor Blacks, leaving people destitute and ultimately starving to death, was one thing the American SS taught the German SS. And this is hardly a way to gain the heart of a people. And you people not only expect us to forget but DEMAND we do?! By saying, “you lost, we won, get over it”? How about this, “You won, we lost, you get over it and leave us alone.”

  5. Walter Ring August 18, 2008 @ 10:34 am

    Don’t bother trying to explain the facts to these communist bozos. They have their own anti-White agenda and will do or say anything or omit key facts to make their story seem correct. Their true communist agenda was revealed when these negros and their White race-traitor lackeys told the world they would NOT respect private property rights. The SCV is a negro worshipping group and I detest them for it, but the law is on their side-private property rights trump anything these communist lackeys can bring to the table. The best thing for these rag-tag coloreds can do is to shut up and move on to real problems within their own community-drugs, crime, illiteracy, one-parent families, high-school dropouts that commit violent crime, welfare, and a host of other problems infinitely more important than some giant Confederate Flag flying in their line of sight.

    HOORAY FOR DIXIE and WHITE SOUTHERN SOLIDARITY!!!

  6. Ryan Morrison September 15, 2008 @ 11:09 pm

    why shouldnt they be proud of their flag?

  7. Will B. Honor September 16, 2008 @ 8:02 pm

    As a southernized Yankee, who’s descendants fought for the Union and who knows both sides of the history, I’ve never understood why the S.C.V. flew the most detested version of C.S.A.’s multitudinous flags?

    Why is it necessary to fly a so-called Battle Flag (Read Confederate Naval Ensign)? It’s seems you’ll just irritate at least 35% – 50% of the total population.

    I love the South and Florida too. Have y’all ever thought of Flying the Bonnie Blue – a true Floridian Flag -that has come to represent a state’s rights and responsibilities?

    What’s wrong with the 1st National CSA flag? When I see the 1st National I don’t think of jug headed negro haters. I think. “Now, there’s a dude/dame that knows their history and is proud to be from the South.”

    I think that’s the reaction you should go for, honestly.

  8. Jon September 17, 2008 @ 6:22 am

    Hey Will – I expressed a similar sentiment in a later story, The Confederate Flag: A Short History. Another option: Just fly the U.S. flag, since it is the actual national flag of all the regions, including the South.

  9. Luke February 23, 2009 @ 6:31 pm

    Everything You just Stated Is False or not the Whole truth

    Failure=NO
    Hatred=To the Yanks No one Else
    The KKK Nazi and Other Fools mis use the Flag and its Meaning its a Christian Cross just like Its Older Brother In Scotland, The”Southern Cross” is a Symbol of freedom From Opressive Govt and and The Southron People of all So-Called “Races”(Which Dont exist)

    Violence? What Violence has been Commited by those who support what it Really Means,(Not Counting the CLA which Is Completely Against The US,(I agree With them))

    Long Live Dixieland

  10. RebelMatt April 9, 2009 @ 4:32 pm

    That thing is beautiful!

  11. Walter Ring June 25, 2010 @ 10:09 am

    Here’s an idea: how about using the rainbow flag and/or the hammer and sickle? Both of these flags have come to represent what this country has deteriorated into today-political correctness in the extreme and a communist obsession with finding and punishing anyone that dares to think different from what the official party line is. Beware, comrades-the thought police are out there, so do not do or say anything that will offend anyone or you will be forced to undergo sensitivity training or be committed to a mental hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

  12. Luke Murphy February 17, 2011 @ 6:47 pm

    I am not trying to be a a weak pathetic little Yankee-prick in any wrong-sense.

    But no I am sorry I’m just not giving into the whole-notion that (State’s Rights not slavery) was the cause of the Civil-War and that they all we’re just heroically-defiant of the so-called tyranical “Federal-Army” if you dislike the U.S. of A. soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.

    Why don’t you Neo-confederate revisionists simply just move north to Canada, it is very Anti-American up there in many ways you will love it.

    Or better-worse join Al-Qaeda or the Taleban they too are even more Anti-Amnerican

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