Daytona Beach Elects It's First African American Mayor.....

This is great because while I don't have the exact numbers given the fact that I lived there for four years and still live about forty miles away I can safely say that Daytona Beach has nowhere near an African American majority....

In other words white folks will vote for black folks....

This is what irks me about the Confederate flag brouhaha and some of the remarks on this board... Southerners are a diverse lot and the confederate flag waving, gun toting, pick up driver is as accurate a portrayal of the South as the movie Deliverance....

I have lived in Florida since I was a little boy (1970)in it's rural, urban, and suburban areas and never owned a Confederate flag, never chewed tobacco, and never owned a lawn jockey.... And neither did 99% of the people I know... Heck , we even sided with Neil Young in his fued with Lyrnd Skyrnd.... In the eighth grade we were asked to define martyr and give examples... I chose Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy not Stonewall Jackson and Jeff Davis....

I travel rural, suburban, and urban Central Florida and haven't seen a Confederate flag in three months....

Please find another emblem to explain us....

but you are missing the point of Dean's use of that phrase. He wasn't talking about the whole south. He wasn't talking about people who DON'T vote against their own best interests out of ignorance or some misguided pride in a shameful history. He wasn't talking about the Klan, either. He was talking about those people in the south who others are always saying won't vote for a non-Southerner for president.

(and, incidently, I see way too many confederate flags in my neck of Central Florida. Hell, the Florida flag has the bars on it and our state song is Swanee River!)

travel all around Central Florida for business including semi rural Lake and Volusia County and have seen one Confederate flag in the past year.... Some yahoo was flying it in front of his home in Deltona.... I found this insensitive cuz Deltona is an integrated community and I'm sure some of his neighbors find it offensive...


The flag is a bad symbol .... It's offensive to non racist southerners to be lumped in with the few yahoos who fly it...

Of course the flag is a bad symbol. But by taking Dean's comments to mean more than they were -- that some people in the south vote against their own interests out of ignorance or worse and that it would be great if they didn't do this anymore -- it is you that is lumping non racist southerners in with the yahoos.

There are plenty of negative stereotypes of southerners. One that gets too much play in the party is that we will only elect presidential candidates from the south. People who have so much misguided pride that they would do this to their own detriment are outdated, outmoded and ignorant (like those that have confederate flag stickers on their cars or as license plate frames).

That's all....

There really is too much condescension to the South... Non-southerners don't have a monopoly on tolerance, intelligence, tolerance, virtue, etcetera.....

but, IMO, no other imagery would so succinctly and accurately capture the idea of someone who is putting misguided pride, ignorance and a screwed up value system ahead of the best interests of themselves, their families and their country.

It's like a R saying I want to reach out those people who wear leather pants, too tight t shirts and listen to the Village People.....

because leather pants aren't a recognizable symbol of a screwed up value system.

It's a bit more like an R saying that he/she wants to reach out to people who wear pink triangle pins. It isn't the same because a pink triangle pin ISN'T a symbol of hate and therefore ISN'T a symbol of a screwed up value system (although many ignorant people would say it is the latter). But, the pink triangle isn't a stereotype. It is a symbol of gay pride. Simiarly, the conferate flag isn't just a stereotype. To those who display it, it is a symbol of "southern pride".

The fact that it offends you that people fly the flag is a very, very good thing. If you are denying that the feelings it symbolizes are still too prevalent in the south, then .... well, not so good. Denial isn't the way to confront a problem.

Regardless of my feelings about the flag and whether there is alot of or a little support for the values or lack of values it embodies I resent being lumped in with people display it....