EMOTIONS UP OVER TAMPA CONFEDERATE FLAG

Tampa, FL - In the wake of the second flying of the now infamous Tampa Confederate Battle Flag, which is the worlds largest Confederate Flag, the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners chose to call a meeting to address the issue of the flag amid cry’s to have it hauled down by a hand full of radical opponents, transplants, and developers fearful of how the Confederate Flag may damage tourism to the Tampa Bay area.

Please excuse my little rant…

Personally I (Morgan Sweeny) find it appalling at how your (Tampa and Hillsborough County Resident’s) tax dollars are being wasted to appease the irrational and uneducated cries of a group that is according to Websters dictionary a bunch of racists… Makes me glad that I live in Jacksonville, of course we have our own problem with BJ’s to worry about… I must now digress and get back on topic

One of the more vocal opponents to the Tampa Confederate Flag was a Ms. Marsha Weaver, we assume to be a resident of Hillsborough County, whom displayed civil rights era pictures of lynchings, hangings, and KKK perpetuated violence against minorities through out Dixie and how the Confederate Battle Flag in its various forms was used by the KKK as a method of intimidation, hate, and racism from 1950 – 1970′ish. To help get the point across Ms. Weaver was clutching a self made hang mans noose which she used as a prop as she displayed her pictures of racial violence from over 30 years ago.

None of the pictures Ms. Weaver displayed was taken in Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County, or even Florida for that matter. In fact all of the pictures Ms. Weaver displayed during the County Meeting was from Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, and one picture was even from Pennsylvania of all places?

So why display these horrible pictures if none of them were taken in Tampa?

Well I’m glad you asked that question, you see Ms. Weaver and many in the oppositions camp want to blur the facts and try to confuse the good people of Tampa Bay into thinking that the Confederate Flag is some how connected to the KKK, racism, and hate…  which is not true and is pure anti-Southron propaganda meant to keep our people under the heal of the American Empire and at each others throats.

In lamens terms they want to lie to you and I so that they can trick us into believing what they want us to believe by playing the race card which now a days is very seldom justified.

It must also be noted that the KKK does exist in the Tampa Bay, to date they have a reported 13 members and have held regular Klan Rallies in St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Treasure Island. However none of these 13 KKK members belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Florida League of the South, or Southern Party of Florida.

You see its a fact that is almost always ignored that all of these groups, which by the way make up the bulk of the Confederate Cause / Southern Resistance Movement in Florida, have both banished and excommunicated any and all Klan members for life.

Thus if one uses that sponging thing between his or her ears (Your Brain!) you can very easily conclude by your lonesome, with very easy grade school logic, that the Confederate Flag and the Tampa Confederate Flag Park its owners and allies are not connected nor associated, in any way shape or form, with the KKK or racism.

You can also conclude that Ms. Weaver and her entire argument is full of hot air and that she is not driven by honorable intentions and must have an anterior motive for calling for the removal of the Confederate Flag by using out right lies to try to fool the citizenry (you and I) and government into supporting her stance to have the pride of Dixie hauled down.

You are free to make your own mind as to what her intentions are, its not the business of the Florida Patriot nor the Southern Party of Florida to put words in your mouth, or thoughts in your head; our goal is to only give you the true, gods honest facts, and let you make up your own mind.

However in my book, and in my sole opinion she is a misguided anti-Southern opponent that has drank way too much of the Federal Government’s propaganda laced cool aid.

Ms. Weaver’s final statement to the Hillsborough County Commission and guests in attendance was…

“That flag (Confederate Battle Flag)  will not hang… We need more people to start standing up and fighting.”

Ms. Weaver and the handful of people that came out to support her and the call to remove the flag were by far out numbered, not by the KKK, not by a huge crowd of backwoods White people with pitch forks and dawning overalls, but instead by a diverse group of highly educated, and very successful Hillsborough County residents and Florida citizens that showed up to support Dixie and the Stars-n-Bars.

Phil Walters a member of the Florida Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans put it best when he said…

“I’m offended that our veterans are disrespected, (and) called traitors,”

Despite the diverse crowd of Southerners in attendance the liberal leaning Hillsborough County Commission chose to pander to the race card played by Ms. Weaver and others by making some quite disparaging remarks against the Tampa Confederate Flag, the South, Confederate Veterans, and Tampa’s proud Confederate heritage and history.

Two of the most out spoken County Commissioners against the Tampa Confederate Flag were Commissioner’s Rose Ferlita and Jim Norman.

Commissioner Rose Ferlita had this to say…

“We already see what this has done in terms of fragmenting our community”

and Commissioner Jim Norman made this very misguided statement, which Commissioner Rose Ferlita reportedly applauded to a degree…

“The Civil War (War of Southern Independence) is part of our history and that’s where it belongs, in the history books… Maybe there’s a way that both sides can talk, because we don’t need to re fight this battle and bring up old wounds.”

Following these misguided and pandering statements came the various compromises which were proposed by both the County and the opponents which turned out to be one in the same.

The first compromise came from the County in which they proposed to fly an even larger Confederate Flag inside the confines of the Hillsborough County Government Building in downtown Tampa and in exchange the SCV would remove the Confederate Flag from its Confederate Veterans Memorial Park.

For those of you that are older then 30 then you remember the huge fight that ensued over the former great seal of Hillsborough County which showed a very dominant Confederate Battle Flag as part of its design. You may also remember the compromise, if you can call it that, where the Confederate Battle Flag was removed from the seal and in its place they chose to erect a “5 Flags of Florida” display in the Hillsborough County Building lobby. Need less to say this time around this weak and pointless suggestion was shot down almost as soon as it was proposed.

SCV Member and Tampa Flag owner Marion Lambert had this to say about this first compromise…

“its unlikely that this compromise will sail this time… we have attorneys… the ACLU is even involved in this thing.”

The second compromise suggested by a local citizen involved the removal of the Confederate Flag and in its place a huge American Flag would be flown. For very obvious reasons this idea was shot down almost as quickly as it was proposed. Why in the heck would we Southrons want to fly the flag of the American Empire at a memorial to the soldiers that were killed by it?

The current American flag is not well liked by most Southrons whom consider the American Betsy Ross (13 Star) Flag much more revered. Please allow me to use lamens terms again, we Southrons for the most part consider the Betsy Ross flag just as sacred as the Confederate Battle Flag because they both stand for the nation, principles, and ideals our founding fathers established in 1776, where as the current American Flag stands for the Federal Empire that illegally replaced the nation of our forefathers and is the nation and flag our Southron ancestors fought against in the War of Southern Independence.

Mr. Walters of the Florida Division of the SCV put it best when he said in response to the second proposed compromise…

“It’s a veterans monument to the Southern (Confederate) veterans, and they were fighting against the American flag at that time,”

Need less to say after the 2nd compromise was shot down the meeting quickly deteriorated as both sides refused to budge on the issue and the meeting was shortly conviened without reaching a common middle ground.

However lets be honest with ourselves that a compromise with Ms. Weaver and the opposition is impossible given their level of hatred against the Confederate Flag and the South. Their version of a compromise would be to haul down every Confederate Flag across Dixie, pass laws outlawing the private flying of the Stars-n-Bars and only allow them to be displayed in select museums that adhere to the same misguided anti-Southern propaganda they adhere too.

The Southern Party of Florida was not surprised by the outcome of the County Meeting and was surprised that it remained a low profile and local affair. SPFL Chairperson Floyd has this to say about the Meeting…

“I’m not surprised that the meeting ended without coming to a compromise, this was to be expected due to the extreme misguided views of the opposition… our only hope is to keep the ball in our court by scheduling a series of local meetings between the flag supporters and opposition. Once the national leaders of the opposition gets involved they will erect a dividing wall in our community that will be impassable, we must take the initiative and spearhead the call for unity and understanding over this issue…

For the record the Southern Party of Florida advocates a policy of racial equality that it calls “Kings Doctrine” which is based entirely upon the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The SPFL can foresee the demise of racism only if the South can unite behind its former National Banner the Confederate Flag, which has been misused and misunderstood by both sides for way too long and in its wake has left plenty of damage.

Following the conclusion of the meeting Ms. Weaver had these choice comments for the local reporters…

“Next year, the Superbowl is going to be here. How many black NFL players do we have, how many Hispanic, Latino players? How do you think they’re going to feel driving into Tampa seeing that big ole flag?”

Ms. Weaver which has become the clear leader of the anti-Southron movement in Tampa stated that she is… “Worried about the area’s image”, she also took it a step further by reportedly saying…

“That by the time my 3 year old daughter can understand all of this, that flag will be gone.”

To which the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy say, “Don’t count on it”.

Per local Fox 13 the SCV and UDC hope to have the flag up 24/7 within 30 days which is about 8 months ahead of schedule however this is only speculation at this point. We were unable to confirm this statement with the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy.