Atomic City Talk

That's why uniforms are the best way to go. No questons asked. You get up in the morning and know what you can and what you cannot wear.

Are you suggesting that the States of our Union don't have "mostly friendly relations" today? I'm Yankee-born (from Michigan), yet have called Dixie home for nearly ten years -- without any consternation or objection from native-Southern friends and neighbors.

The "Confederate Flag" is not the national flag of the former Confederate States of America, nor is it the battle streamer that Bobby Lee and his Confederate States Army carried into battle. Rather, it is an adaptation of the second Confederate naval jack with the colors of the "stars and bars" -- and is symbolic only of Southern pride.

Don't forget that, after Appomattox, Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe while Grant and Lee shook hands and rode their separate ways.

I am a southerner and I despise it too. My ancestors fought for the South. It is an emblem that represents white supremacy and intolerance in our nation. I am very aware of its legacy, but I also do not turn a blind eye to what it represents today. Prisoners of war released by the Union Army had to take a pledge of allegiance to the United States and deny aid or comfort to those that still flew the rebel flag. It's legacy represents oppression. My ancestors were wrong to defend it.

This part of Tennessee was with the north so what are we even talking about. The flag does not even have any significance to this part of the state. This whole thing is ridiculous. If this were S. Carolina or something I could see it maybe being an issue but here it should not be an issue at all.

PI, Thanks for the history lesson. I had no idea East Tennessee attempted to secede from the rest of Tennessee (and was actually occupied by Confederate forces to prevent secession) until your post prompted me to do a little research. A brief section from Wikipedia is descriptive.

PI: you are correct about this part of Tennessee. However, there are numerous people who, like me, were born and bred in the "State of Franklin" yet have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. The kid involved in the lawsuit against ACHS stated that he had such an ancestor, and that was who he was "honoring" by wearing the flag to school.

AW: I think you have it backwards.. I think more people see the Stars and Bars as a racist symbol than those who see it as an historical artifact, unless it is displayed in a obvious historical manner (Civil War reinactments, in a museum, etc.).

I ate lunch yesterday with a large group of friends - all white and almost all born and raised in the South. I asked their opinion of a situation here in OR.... a house that I pass everyday has a large Confederate flag hanging from the porch. The family that lives there is white. Directly across the street is a black family. Everyone in the group thought that it is extremely inappropriate for that flag to be hanging on the porch because we all see it (in that context) as a rascist symbol.

I listened to that child speak on the news. Maybe if he had paid more attention in English class instead of worrying about his belt buckle he might have not crucified the English language the way he did.

The problem is here not that he wore the flag but that he was insubbordinate. He was told take it off and disrepected authority. Abide by the rules and fight it later.

I think that the schools did take the route of allowing "some self-expression and only limit those articles of clothing that are indecent, or clearly obscene." In a school situation, inappropriate clothing can certainly be considered indecent or obscene.

Wearing a flag is inappropriate clothing for school too. Imagine what would happen if the breeze picked up.

I'd like to add that two of the friends I ate lunch with on Sunday are teachers in Knox County. One works at the Alternative High School which switched to uniforms several years ago because of gang fights. The other works at a high school that has a dress code but not uniforms. The former is glad for the uniform rule; the latter expressed a desire that her school would switch to them as well.

@Ernestine: I agree!