Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 15:03:33 -0500
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Political Inventions
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Strong, Lee" wrote:

> Ted,
>         My twist on the name of the National Association for the Advancement
> of Colored People (NAACP) was intended to satirize their current actions in
> fighting a battle that is IMHO long since over.  My ancestors paid in blood
> to suppress the Confederacy's perversion of the American dream and I am
> willing to allow the descendants of the Confederates to fly the Stars & Bars
> and/or the Battle Jack in a HISTORICAL setting.  I am confident in victory
> and don't see a need to grind the faces of the descendants of the
> Confederates who have been Americans for many years now.  The fact that the
> NAACP is spending its time boycotting South Carolina because the former flag
> isn't FAR ENOUGH from the Statehouse rather than boycotting bad schools or
> bad politicians strikes me as a tragedy for all Americans but especially for
> those they claim to be advancing.
>         Racist?  That word meant something once, but in recent years, it's
> been so widely misapplied that it's come to mean almost the exact oppositte.
>         Ignorant?  In answer to Erica's question, the real Equal Rights
> Amendments are the 14th and 19th.
>
> Lee Strong
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted White [mailto:tedwhite at compusnet.com]
> Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 4:50 PM
> To: WSFA members
> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Interesting Inventions
>
> "Strong, Lee" wrote:
>
> >         The flag did go away but the National Association to Annoy
> > Confederate People hasn't.
>
> I sincerely hope this was not intended to sound as ignorant and racist as it
> does.

1.  The flag did *not* "go away."

2.  A great many black people living in the south perceive that flag -- and the
people who wave it -- very differently than you do.  For them it's a living
reminder of hate and oppression -- wielded by people who *do* hate them and *do*
wish to oppress them.

3.  On the face of it, your statement which I quoted above *does* sound
"ignorant and racist" (and snide).  I sincerely hoped that you did not intend
that and I'll take your word for it that this is in fact the case.

--Ted White