Las Cruces Tea partiers win float contest and ignite controversy

The Las Cruces Tea Party in New Mexico drew a sharp response from the city's mayor after flying a Confederate flag on a float that ended up taking first place at last week's Fourth of July parade.

Why exactly? In our tolerant country why can't some tea partiers fly a flag? Didn't hurt me a bit! The people must've liked it. They did win afterall.

"The Las Cruces Tea Party can believe whatever it wants, but to have this symbol and what it represents highlighting the winning float at a celebration of our nation's independence is an outrage," Mayor Ken Miyagishima wrote in a statement, according to New Mexico's KKOB.

Isn't self expression a great way to celebrate freedom though?

source

Bitter words are being exchanged between the Las Cruces mayor and the city's Tea Party over a parade float.

This mayor does understand that limiting political and self expression isn't an american ideal right?

The Tea Party said the float celebrates the area's history.

Since when did the confederate union spread to new mexico? I must've missed that.

source

This is all very confusing. I'm not fond of the rebel flag, but they've been argueing about it for so long it's really kind of old. They had a number of flags up there. Does anyone still care?

George Carlin once said: "Symbols are for for the symbol-minded."

I see no problem with this because the flag is not inherently a symbol of racism and such. For some, it is a symbol of southern pride.

As long as the TP folks are not using to incite hatred....who cares?

Maybe all the Tea Party people can move to Mississippi and leave the rest of America untarnished? Then they can fly the rebel flag all they want and we can keep our advanced society.

reply to post by Evolutionsend

Since when did the confederate union spread to new mexico? I must've missed that.

From your source.

On March 16 1861, La Mesilla hosted a territorial secession convention. 12 days before the convention, seven states left the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America, and nearly one month later the Civil War's first major aggression took place at Fort Sumner. Both Union and Confederate governments claimed control over the New Mexico Territory, which extended through Arizona and southern Nevada. As with the war, the territory split horizontally. On July 15 1861, Confederates from Texas took over Mesilla and established the Arizona Territory from southern New Mexico through Tucson, Ariz. Confederates pushed north, however its New Mexico Campaign would end at Glorietta Pass in March 1862. Union troops forced Confederates into retreat. They destroyed the Confederate supply wagon and its hopes for expansion into California. By April 1882, Union troops had forced the last Confederate soldiers out of Mesilla.

Battle of Glorieta Pass

The confederate forces buried their cannons in Albuqeurque during their retreat. The cannons are still in the plaza. I heard about the contreversy in the news. The mayor of Las Cruces can be angry if he wnats, but the tea party had every right to display any flag they want. How is it ok that the gay rights activists can fly their flag, but nobody else gets to? Whether or not I agree with their opinion is not relevent, they put together a float and the people liked it. Good for them.

reply to post by Evolutionsend

"The Las Cruces Tea Party can believe whatever it wants, but to have this symbol and what it represents highlighting the winning float at a celebration of our nation's independence is an outrage,"

And what praytell, does this mayor suppose the symbol represents? There are states that still fly the confederate flag in their capitals! (Or at least did until very recently. The last one may be gone now.) I believe the mayor may be letting his public education show. If he thinks the flag represented slavery then, or slavery now, then maybe he should focus his resources on the education system instead of parades.


Perhaps the mayor should read This thread.

reply to post by Evolutionsend

Does anyone still care?

Travel in the Deep South for awhile, then you tell me. I live in Southern Ohio. I know of three Stars and Bars flags hanging from homes and porches within two miles of here. To some the flag represents Rebellion against an oppressive and domineering government. Federal Government should be small, with few resources. I live in Ohio. My Government is in Ohio. Many associate the flag with oppression and slavery, but in fact it is a Naval Standard, and never flew over a battlefield until after the war. As for the way some people fell, even today, this song from those times sums it up nicely....

I’m a Good Old Rebel

Oh, I'm a good old Rebel
Now that's just what I am.
For this Yankee nation
I do not give a damn.
I'm glad I fought agin her,
I only wish we'd won.
I ain't asked any pardon
For anything I've done.

I hates the yankee nation
And everything they do,
I hates the declaration
Of independence, too;
I hates the glorious union-
’tis dripping with our blood-
And I hates their striped banner,
I fought it all I could.

I rode with Robert E. Lee,
For three years, thereabouts.
Got wounded in four places
And starved at Point Lookout.
I caughts the rheumatism
A-camping in the snow.
But I killed a chance of Yankees
And I'd like to kill some mo'.

Three hundred thousand Yankees
Lie stiff in Southern dust
We got three hundred thousand
Before they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot.
I wish they were three millions
Instead of what we got.

I can't take up my musket
And fight 'em now no more,
But I ain't going to love 'em,
Now that is certain sure;
I don't want no pardon
For what I was and am,
I won't be reconstructed
And I do not give a damn.

Lyrics Source

For those of you that love liberty, and value self-responsibility, and like your privacy, and want to raise your families in peace, without fear of government intrusion, you should remember the Stars and Bars, and the Gadsden Flag are friendly to you. It isn't racist. I know a lot of black folks that fly the Rebel Flag proudly. Sure, there are some racist people that also fly the flag, but that isn't the flags fault. There are racist people that fly the US flag, or drive Toyotas, we don't blame their habits for their racism. A Ford truck with a Rebel Flag does not automatically mean the person is racist in any way, in fact, probably the opposite, they are probably a lover of liberty and freedom!

There is not a single thing that we can do today, including breathing, or taking a bowel movement that is not regulated by the government. You pay taxes on the place where you sleep. You are indirectly paying taxes on the air you breath and the water you drink. No place is safe, because a sealed, no-knock warrant, can be executed against you on just mere suspicion, without probable cause, and you can be detained indefinitely or even assassinated if the government deems it necessary. There are no longer any civil rights or freedoms. You pay to hunt the King's deer and fish and you only grow what they say you can grow, where they say you can grow it, and you can't even collect rainwater from your own roof, because it actually belongs to the government, and they have a master plan for how that water is supposed to be ushered out to the contaminated ocean instead of sinking into your own soil to replenish the aquifers.

If a government official says you are supposed to hate the Rebel Flag, then that official is not fit to serve. Get rid of him. The people elected the float they like the best, and the Mayor obviously has another agenda he is serving, instead of the will of the people. Get him out of office, and get a lover of liberty into his spot!

reply to post by krossfyter


Wrong.

It was not Treasonous, because they were voluntary members of the Republic of the United States of America, and they had ever right to sedition. Now, when the war ended, and there was no longer a Republic of States, instead there was a new entity based around an all-powerful central Federal Government, but the legal sedition happened before the creation of that new entity, so it could not possibly have been treasonous, and in fact, what we have today is an illegal occupation of the Southern States. Just sayin.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by krossfyter

 

Wrong.

It was not Treasonous, because they were voluntary members of the Republic of the United States of America, and they had ever right to sedition. Now, when the war ended, and there was no longer a Republic of States, instead there was a new entity based around an all-powerful central Federal Government, but the legal sedition happened before the creation of that new entity, so it could not possibly have been treasonous, and in fact, what we have today is an illegal occupation of the Southern States.

Just sayin.

if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... well.....

reply to post by getreadyalready


The South fired first. The South attacked the North twice, before the North responded. That makes it treason.