Minorities activists oppose display of Confederate flag at Confederate memorial

From the Associated Press via Yahoo News...

An organizer of a planned memorial to honor Confederate soldiers who died at an Illinois prison camp says the rebel flag will be displayed at the memorial's dedication, despite opposition.

"We consider this an honorable flag. This is a soldier's flag," said Ron Casteel, national chief of staff for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the memorial's planners. "There will be no substitute."

Camp Butler, just east of Springfield, was a training facility for Union troops during the Civil War and a prison camp for more than 3,500 captured Confederates. More than 800 of the prisoners died and were buried there, and the site is now a national cemetery....

The local NAACP chapter said the flag "represents oppression and murder." The Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination, proposed that organizers fly flags of individual Southern states during the dedication, saying many Americans consider the Confederate flag to be "a symbol of hatred and oppression."

Let me see if I understand this correctly...Black activists want to argue that because some Confederates owned slaves, anything having to do with the Confederacy is evil? Do they really want to push the idea of demonizing a group because of bad action perpetrated by some of the group? Have they bothered to notice the crime rates in Black neighborhoods (not to mention the fact that such a thing as a Black neighborhood still exists after all the trouble taken to supposedly end segregation)?

 And the ADL...am I the only one noticing the irony of a Jewish group contributing to the demonization of a group based on myths, distortions and lies?

Posted by Danny Carlton at October 4, 2005 07:14 AM