Mississippi Flag Forum
 
From: cliftonpalmermclendon@yahoo.com
To: cawebb4@juno.com
 
Of all the subjects to discuss, I wonder why you chose to discuss the Mississippi Flag.
 
From what I know, subjects chosen for discussion are usually subjects for which no empirically-determinable answer exists. For example, a forum would more likely be held on the subject "Is World Peace Possible?" rather than on "Does the State of Mississippi border on the Gulf of Mexico?".
 
Inasmuch as an overwhelming preponderance of the credible evidence has shown that (1) the War for Southern Independence was not fought over the question of Negro slavery, (2) the thirteen-striped United States Flag was more closely involved with perpetuating Negro — and other — slavery than was any Confederate Flag, (3) the only persons or groups who display the Confederate Battle Flag with hateful intent — the Kluxers and other malcontents of their low station — do so without authority,and (4) that the voters of Mississippi voted 65% to 35% in favor of the Flag, I am amazed that any observant person of honest motives could be so uninformed as to raise an objection to the Mississippi Flag.
 
When I consider that the War of 1861-1865 was fought over the same question as the War of 1776-1781 (Do people have the right to fire a government they don’t like, or does the government have the right to cram itself down the throats of the population?), I am at a loss to understand how any reasoning person could say that firing a government was morally right in 1776 and morally wrong 85 years later. Inasmuch as all Confederate Flags were carried into battle by soldiers affirming the belief that people could fire a government they don’t like, it seems blatantly obvious that those who disparage Confederate Flags assert that the government has the right to cram itself down the throats of the population — and in the case of the United States of America, the right to spend the next 143 years rubbing the noses of the defeated and their descendants in that defeat.
 
Rather than holding a forum on the Mississippi Flag, it would be much more to the point to have a panel explain to the audience the facts about Confederate Flags in general, and the Mississippi Flag in particular, so that those who are uninformed might be informed.
 
Clifton Palmer McLendon
Gilmer, Texas