confederate flag

On 10th day of August, 2015 Jerry G. Gantt, Imperial Potentate of Shriners International issued Special Order #4 prohibiting any Shriner (in an official capacity) to display a Confederate flag in public or in private, AND prohibits any Shriner (in official capacity) to participate in ANY event where a Confederate flag is displayed. This Special Order is a slap in the face to the 70,000,000 descendants of Confederate Veterans (also now considered by Federal law to be US Veterans) whose forbearers loved, served and were protected by the Southern Cross. Tell the Imperial Potentate to rescind his order! Although the good works of the Shirners are appreciated, Potentate Gantt's action is disrespecting your family and that you are offended.

The Caddo Parish Confederate Monument in Shreveport Louisiana stands at the site where the last Confederate flag flew above a Confederate State Capitol at the end of the War Between The States. The beautiful monument is on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by the Shreveport Chapter #237 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The site where it stands in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse was given to the United Daughters of the Confederacy to use in perpetuity to honor Our Confederate Dead. It should never be removed for it is a symbol of the ultimate sacrifice by American veterans of war.

Dear Henry McMaster, our south Carolina governor, please stop the South Carolina confederate holiday overtime and holiday pay because it's not what state workers and business want.   and we don't celebrate it.  Can we observe it ? employees and citizens and businesses don't want a bill or holiday pay for confederate memorial day.  Some of us work for this state.  Most of us live in this state.  OUR OPINION MATTERS.  We should stop billing businesses on the confederate holiday.  We should stop charging overtime on a confederate holiday.  Can we honorably recognized the civil war without causing pro confederate agendas?   We should not make everyone celebrate a confederate holiday that is involved with South Carolina.   We support a community day where we clean up road trash, clean up family graves or forgotten soldier graves, or help our community by showing no divisions and that we are American. We love one another. We all lost family in the civil war. We gained unity, freedom and humanity. Lets stop building divisions.   Lets stop  making everyone celebrate a confederate holiday.  Make it observed or make a change?  I live in this state and I care. I will not celebrate a confederate holiday. This is the United States of America and charging overtime is not appropriate. We can observe it and remember without overtime. note:  Memorial day was started by freed slaves in Charleston sc.  Celebrate unity.  A confederate holiday should not be billed to us or my friends or my neighbors.

We are proud of Tupelo and acknowledge our City Council's effective governance. But on this one issue regarding the flag, we believe the Council is egregiously wrong and is leading Tupelo in the wrong direction. In response to the mayor using an executive order to remove the state flag from the Tupelo Police Department, an all-white majority in a 4-3 vote approved an ordinance that requires the state flag to be flown on all remaining municipal properties. This ordinance means that neither the current mayor nor any other future mayor could remove the state flag for any reason. WHEREAS, all Christian religious bodies in the state, including the Southern Baptist Convention, Catholic Diocese, MS Episcopal Diocese, United Methodist Church, and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, have condemned either the public display of the Confederate emblem or called for the state flag to be changed; WHEREAS, the state flag’s origins are explicitly racist, and 41.3% of Tupelo’s people are non-white; WHEREAS, Tupelo has a tradition of forward, progressive thinking reflected in its history, such as its successful integration of public schools, and its institutions such as the CDF, Main Street Businesses, and the Daily Journal; WHEREAS, tourism is a substantial part of the Tupelo economy and the state flag sends the message we are not the "Hospitality State" that welcomes all;  WHEREAS, the Mississippi Economic Council, Mississippi Development Authority, Mississippi Manufacturer's Association, and many other economic development organizations have publicly recognized the financial harm caused by the state flag and have called for the flag to be changed; WHEREAS, Mississippi suffers an out-migration of millennials who routinely cite the lack of forward-thinking as one of their main reasons for leaving; WHEREAS, it is highly unusual and suspect to bind the future authority of the office of the mayor and creates unnecessary friction in what has been a harmonious partnership between the Tupelo city council and mayor's office; and WHEREAS, continuing to fly the state flag harms our city in many ways and benefits it in none; NOW, THEREFORE, be it RESOLVED, that the citizens of Tupelo urge their City Council to do the right thing, rescind this ordinance, and move forward in the spirit that has made our community #TupeloStrong.