Councilman Hangs Confederate Flag at House, in Minnesota
You often hear of people flying Confederate flags at their houses to show their Southern pride, but that always happens, you know, in the South. Now one man, who also happens to be a local councilman, is hanging the flag at his most Northern home in Minnesota.
West St. Paul Councilman Ed Hansen said he has heard no complaints since he put the flag up last summer. But recently the town mayor learned about it, and he's complaining.
"I don't like it," Mayor John Zanmiller said. "Do I wish the flag wasn't there? Yes."
Zanmiller said he spoke with Hansen last week about taking it down. It doesn't sound like that is going to happen.
"It's my house," Hansen told the Pioneer Press. "It represents sovereignty, individual rights and individual liberty. It's my free speech, and that's my choice. What's the problem?"
Well, aside from the flag being a symbol of racism to many, the councilman's flag also has the word "redneck" scrawled on it -- another sign that there is some kind of racial intent. Hansen denies this.
"I'm not a racist, and I don't think it's racist," he said. "People like to play the race card, though, when they don't get their way."
When told that a developer who is building a house next to Hansen's claims the flag chased a prospective buyer away, Hansen said, "Good. I don't want him for a neighbor then."
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For crying out loud, just don't look at the flag! To USMCvet: Jessie the Body did not legalize prostitution in Minnesota. Where did you ever come up with that? The only reasonably good thing Governor Turnbuckle did in office, when he was rarely in the office, was to lower the automobile license tax. He did that only because he owned a kick ass Porsche at the time.
This council member has the absolute right to fly this flag, and I I lived in that district, would have the absolute right to vote to kick his butt out of his council seat. There are a lot of Confederate apologists, men and women who wish that we were two nations, and not one. That their nation's first president was not George Washington, but Jefferson Davis. The South seceded because they were afraid that Lincoln was going to take action to end slavery. Lincoln of course, didn't have the power (nor his fellow party members in Congress) to do so at that time. But they were paranoid. Also, for states' right people they sure used the federal government to track down escaped slaves int he North and have Northerners who helped these slaves, to be tried as criminals. They don't like talking about that of course.
They banned anti-slavery pamphlets in the South. They don't like talking about that either. The fact is, the Confederate founding fathers made constant references to slavery. Every Confederate state constitution mentions how slavery is a foundation for their government. Something else they don't want talked about.
Jerome McCollom
I am sorry to correct you,because you are on the right path to the truth,but it was the War of Northern Agression that you are talking about.I know because my ancestor fought on both sides.He did not care he was a damned Injun.
I have little issue with the Confederate battle flag, which is the one that so many are getting up in arms over; but I would have issue if it were the flag of the Confederacy, which is a very different flag.
The problem is that no one, with few exceptions, actually knows the difference between the two. Too many people think that the War of the Rebellion (American Civil War) was fought over slavery, but Lincoln did not sign the emancipation proclamation until a year AFTER the war had started. This makes the argument of the war being over slavery more than a little weak. The war was fought over states' rights; slavery was only ONE issue within the causes of that conflict.
People really need to get a better history education in this country, because critical events in our history, such as the facts of our revolution and our Civil War, the trail of Tears (and other tyrannies against all of our 1st nations people) need to not be whitewashed over by the PC crowd of undereducated imbeciles that don't like the facts. How will we learn to realize how much we have improved, as a nation and society, if we do not know how bad we used to be?
The insanity principle is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. The far right, the far left, vegans, creationists and other extremists believe in the insanity principle, religiously.
@ raptorcat:
"This makes the argument of the war being over slavery more than a little weak. The war was fought over states' rights; slavery was only ONE issue within the causes of that conflict."
This is what is known as a contradiction. You can't say the argument was a "little weak" in one breath and then turnaround and it was one component. Slavery is slavery.
That said, I HAVE GREAT ISSUE WITH THE FLAG and see it as racist. State's rights = slavery, racism. They are code words. For if we truly lived in an environment of state's rights, it would be like going back in time......
There is no doubt: Your post is HIGHLY offensive and extremely disgusting. So is that flag.
Actually, the "Emancipation Proclamation" in it's final form wasn't issued until Jan 1863, if I've done my math right, 1 year and 8 months after the opening of hostilities. Furthermore, it was riddled with exceptions. Lincoln never did "free all the slaves." The emancipation allowed that the border and slave states and territories of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Delaware. There were actually 3 versions. The first was little more than an order to the military to cease returning slaves- contrabands- to the Confederacy which was a common practice performed by military commands including the Army of the Potomac under MacClellan in obedience to the Escaped Slave act. Uhhh, "War to end slavery? Then in April 62 one year after the beginning of hostilities, Lincoln freed the slaves in Washington DC. This is the event sometimes celebrated as Emancipation day, for why I don't know. The final version, as noted above was issued to deter England, who had led Europe in combating slavery, from providing more direct support to the Confederacy by CHANGING THE FOCUS OF THE WAR FROM ONE OF STATES RIGHTS INTO A WAR AGAINST SLAVERY. Remember, Lincoln had said he would fight the war if it meant freeing none, some or all of the slaves. He really didn't care politically even though personally against it. He chose the some of route. There was a provision in the proclamation that any Confederate state renouncing the Confederacy and realigning with the Union could retain it's slaves. Basically, it only really counted in Confederate territory directly under Union control. A later revision to the proclamation permitted slave holders in 43 counties in Virginia to retain there slaves, a move to bring those counties into the Union as West Virginia. So far, things are not shaping up so good for Lincoln as "the Great Emancipator." As a final thought, Lincoln, was considering a plan with General Banks (or Butler. I forget off the top of my head which) to transport all former slaves "back to Africa." (of course most Negros in America by this time had been born here. A fact Lincoln was aware of and that didn't seem to have any influence in his considerations) Had Lincoln lived, his memory might not be quite so revered as it is today especially among a certain specific portion of our population. Come to think of it. If true history was taught, his star still might not shine so brightly. More... "Universal Emancipation" was not signed into law until after Lincoln's death, by of all things, a Southerner, Andrew Johnson. (Fight it tooth and claw though he did.) Also, Mississippi did not ratify it until 1995 AND the politicians reserved the right to enslave unto themselves. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT AS A PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Emphasis added. Nothing after positively counters that exception. Ironically, most of my ancestors (in America) at the time were in those 43 Virginia counties and fought on both sides. Only one family we know of had a slave. They were Union. None of the Confederates did...
re: Suzanne Chenier - "Not based solely on slavery."
So you're saying that it's OK to support something as long as there are good things that motivate it along with the one really, really evil thing that was at its core? The South supported the trafficking, ownership, and horrific abuse of HUMAN BEINGS. The war was fought to preserve that "right." Because of that history the Confederate battle flag will forever be linked in the minds of many with the deeds of Confederate slaveholders. No matter how much we want to forget the genocide and torture committed against other human beings.
Confederate flags have a place and those who choose to fly them have that right, but freedom of speech also means your speech can and will be criticized. Now, I don't think this councilman is pro-slavery or pro-genocide, but I do think he has a poor grasp on history and poor taste for symbolism. Why not fly a flag that truly represents the South, instead of one drenched in the blood of brothers and slaves?
You need to study your American history a lot better. The war was primarily fought over states' rights; slavery was only one issue in a laundry list of things that brought the war about. At the time of the War of the Rebellion, the Southern states already knew that slavery was on the way out as industrialization was coming to common usage with devices such as the cotton gin and mechanized harvesting equipment.
You have confused the Confederate Battle Flag (a MILITARY flag) with the flag of the Confederate States of America; a civilian flag and very different from the "Stars and Bars" that folks like you get all up in arms over.
The confederate battle flag IS representative of the south and has nothing to do with racism. It represents the blood an sweat of men, both white and free blacks (as opposed to conscripts) that fought for the south in the war as volunteers. It is a shame that your grasp of American history is so PC. I recommend any number of factual books on that period or that you go talk to some Civil War re-enactors; the true living historians on the subject.
The insanity principle is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. The far right, the far left, vegans, creationists and other extremists believe in the insanity principle, religiously.
Well said, Suzanne Chenier. American history is just that - history - but it is vitally important to know and understand and is far too absent in schools. This IS still America and it has a history and it is not all racially debatable. This is getting tiresome - leave the man alone and his actions will bother no one UNLESS the press insists on keeping their spotlight on him.
Sounds like he just wants to be ornery.