Rebel flag, racist or not?

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Yes,I don't doubt he would have nuked us if he could.Doesn't war s&@k.

I own a CSA flag for novelty reasons as well as my deep interest in the US Civil War. I sometimes fly it at barbecues chez moi, people usually respond positively or don't recognize it.

Vigilans,if you fly it down here women will make you lots of sandwiches.

Dear Kraichgauer,
Glad to here it, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is one of my favorites.They say the arrival of air-conditioning was the death of the great Southern novel,as a musician once said"you cant play the blues in an air conditioned room".

Why do they call it "The War of Northern Aggression" when the South started it anyway?
I do think it's weird that Southerners want to glorify a war that was basically started by a bunch of Southern Aristocrats who tricked a bunch of pig ignorant farm boys to fight for slavery.
It's like trying to glorify the 1942 Philadelphia Philies (who were 42-109) or even the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134)
As for racism, yeah you can't separate the Confederacy or the Confederate flag from it entirely.

Dear Kraichgauer,
This is part of an essay by Paul Greenberg from the Ark Democrat-Gazette,it is a good read.
What is the South?

"What's the South like?"said the man in the white suit."That's what they all ask.Which South do you mean-the antebellum mansion,the fly-specked roadhouse,or the latest of the New Souths,the sunbelt?Or one of the uncountable other Souths? And which image is the facade for which? Do not be quick to decide.It is not easy to see what culture is supplanting the other.The professional Southerner may turn out to be all leaf and no roots;the most Southern of us all may never think on what it means to be Southern.
To be Southern is to live by the side of the road and board up the windows to outsiders.
"The South is driving along a Mississippi back road in the dead heat of a hot Sunday afternoon listening to a black preacher on the radio praising the Lord in half song,half sermon-as close as contemporary man can come to the original spirit of the Psalms."
"The key to that wholeness is the past.It is the only thing that lasts.'The past is never dead ' said Faulkner.'It is not even past'.Though it lingers longer in some places than others- Like in New Orleans and in the nameless little cotton towns one passes through on the way to somewhere else.
" We are the only part of the country to have been defeated explicitly,and defeat lasts longer than victory and in some ways is sweeter.Whether we learned anything from defeat and occupation is problematic;we were not so much instructed as fascinated by the experience.It's effect has not been cautionary but romantic.The politicians we honor are not the most effective or successful ,but the dreamiest.How else explain the worship of Jefferson Davis?
"Southernism itself is a curious,alien patriotism,the product of both America and of the separate nation we were for four long,arduous years,perhaps longer.We are still a different country in the important informal ways that are most enduring.The honorable Southerner,like General Lee and Admiral Semmes,is still on parole,sincerely wishing to live up to the terms of his pardon,but without violating some interior honor.
"What's the South? It is a reflection in an assortment of fragmented mirrors- some warped,others beveled and tarnished,some much to clear for comfort,still others made of plastic.And there is no way to tell what is the sure image.The best course is to depend on none of them,but to approach the subject without preconceived or received ideas,which,for a Southerner,is an impossibility".

Hope you enjoyed it,it's not in it's entirety,I'm too tired to type anymore.

True,my son is seventh generation Arkansan.I think all the regions of the states should celebrate the differences that make is unique.When President Lincoln pardoned all the Confederates instead of hanging them for treason he defused a situation which could have us still at each others throats.God bless the man for his wisdom.I'm sorry for what happened to him ,he was a great and noble soul.

Just realized I forgot to claim Tennessee Williams as one of our assets,and General MacArthur, and Helen Gurley Brown.While Hemmingway was not a Southerner I think he wrote a novel while staying in Piggot,Ar.And Mick Jagger and Keith Richards got busted in south Ar,that's just funny trivia,not really pertinent but funny.