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GraceD

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:37am PT
Further coverage on The Guardian:http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/27/woman-removes-confederate-flag-south-carolina-statehouse
GraceD

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:47am PT
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:54am PT
Good on them! The South would be well advised to try to pull their citizens up to the standards of living enjoyed by the rest of the country rather than gloryifying, what is to rest of the world, a very regrettable past.
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:57am PT
I was thinking the same thing Jim. Raise southern educational standards not the Confederate flag.

I was also impressed that you could prussik up a slick pole like that using nylon slings. I thought they only worked on goldline!
Chaz

Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:58am PT
We recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of South Carolina's first ass kicking. And now, a girl goes and takes their *battle* flag, just like that.

All those fools standing around wringing their hands for the last two weeks "we can't touch it, there's a law that says so".

"It goes, boys"
GraceD

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Jun 27, 2015 - 09:01am PT
Locker, Jan, Chaz - greetings and peace!
GraceD

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Jun 27, 2015 - 09:14am PT
Tech discussion re: prussik! Love!
Banks

Trad climber
Santa Monica, CA
Jun 27, 2015 - 09:57am PT
The picture of her smiling while getting arrested is awesome. Its as if she is saying "I'm on the right side of history, who's with me?"

One of the best first ascents in history. Hopefully it doesn't need to be repeated.
Crump

Social climber
Lakewood, CO
Jun 27, 2015 - 10:00am PT
Simply the greatest climb ever climbed in the South!

Bree, you are my climbing hero!!!
GraceD

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Jun 27, 2015 - 10:06am PT
The inevitable petition to #FreeBree:http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/DropTheFlagDropTheCharges/?sp_ref=129348646.176.14427.f.59027.2&referring_akid=.1545978.YUWiPX&source=fb_sp
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
Jun 27, 2015 - 11:25am PT
"Black" Diamond harness goes all the way! Product Placement! :)
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Jun 27, 2015 - 11:28am PT
Tami, good points but remember....only with the passing of the Canada Act by the British Parliament in 1982 did Canada shed all vestiges of colonialisim and gain FULL independence. That's 206 years after the Declaration of Independence.
c wilmot

climber
Jun 27, 2015 - 02:18pm PT
I wonder- how many innocent people have died under the American flag?

I guess most Americans are more than happy to be distracted by fluff issues rather than focus on what is really going on
little Z

Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
Jun 27, 2015 - 03:44pm PT
from the Guardian article linked in Grace's 2nd post:

The flag, one of many Confederate battle banners, was mostly a historical artifact until the 1950s and 1960s, when the governments of many southern states took it up as a symbol of resistance to the civil rights movement and desegregation.

so, if there are other Confederate "battle banners" why don't these folks who want to honor their dead confederate soldiers choose another one and fly that instead? (this of course assumes that their real motive for flying the current confederate flag is to honor their dead, which is sort of a hard sell given the statement quoted above)
EdwardT

Trad climber
Retired
Jun 27, 2015 - 03:58pm PT
During the first half of the 20th century, the Confederate flag enjoyed renewed popularity. During World War II some U.S. military units with Southern nicknames, or made up largely of Southerners, made the flag their unofficial emblem. The USS Columbia flew a Confederate Navy Ensign as a battle flag throughout combat in the South Pacific in World War II. This was done in honor of Columbia, the ship's namesake and the capital city of South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union. Some soldiers carried Confederate flags into battle. After the Battle of Okinawa a Confederate flag was raised over Shuri Castle by a Marine from the self-styled "Rebel Company" (Company A of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines). It was visible for miles and was taken down after three days on the orders of General Simon B. Buckner, Jr. (son of Confederate general Simon Buckner, Sr.), who stated that it was inappropriate as "Americans from all over are involved in this battle".
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
Jun 27, 2015 - 04:00pm PT
The real battle banners are in museums full of bullet holes and sprayed with blood. They wouldn't want those reminders around of who lost the war.

As for not flying the South Carolina flag at half mast, it is against state law to do so, a law enacted when they first put it up in the 1960's in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement.

One more symbol of the politicians failing to come to grips with reality and vaguely pretending that they might secede again some day. Have you never been in a crowd of southerners as they shouted, "The South Shall Rise Again"?


edit: Thanks Edward T. I have read a lot about the Battle of Okinawa, but that's the first I've heard that story.
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:15pm PT
Now there is a real hero.

Removes enemy flag and gets arrested.

Better be a White House dinner on the agenda.

Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Jun 27, 2015 - 08:54pm PT

^Tami; like losing to the colonial masters in the W.W.C?

Proud photo, I hope it's real.

But Tami; really many geographical regions across the world have cultural memories and problems dating back much longer than the US Civil War. Don't get me wrong; I was quit freaked out by the locals reliving the US Civil War the first time I went to the US South East and especially to W. Virginia.
Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Jun 27, 2015 - 09:31pm PT
Okay - I'll step up and admit that I am a Native Son of the State of South Carolina and even went as far as to help my Docent Mother conduct tours of the Capitol Building in Columbia - complete with Confederate Flag.

Maybe my opinion is skewed by never being a African American - but I will tell you that for most of the redneck mudflapping truck driving bohunks the Battle Flag had nothing to do with white Supremacy or glorification of dominance over slaves but rather was in the same vein as whooping it up whenever Lynyrd Skynyrd played on the radio - in short, it was an expedient way to display what we called "Southern Pride".

Nothing to do with slavery or oppression or Jim Crow or lynchings - rather a display of biscuits, fried chicken, chiggers and Jim Beam!

Did we also know that in the dark reaches of our community there were sociopaths from the KKK or the American Nazis or Skinheads who DID use the flag to denigrate Blacks - of course - did we glorify them - HELL NO. Believe it or not - we saw these nutjobs as being the same mental retards as did the rest of the civilized world.

But I will admit that this is all from a privileged white perspective. Having grown up and away from that environment and having the pleasure of meeting people of many other colors than lily white - I can see how what we thought of as an innocuous emblem to us instills painful memories of oppression to them.

For that reason alone - I support the movement to strip this flag from every pole and move on.

Climb On girl - and cut that piece of crap down from the pole!

Todd Eastman

climber
Bellingham, WA
Jun 27, 2015 - 09:52pm PT
Tami, conservatives since the end of the Civil War have depended on the votes from Southern whites to stay relevant nationally. Strom Thurmond's Dixocrats and Nixon's Southern Strategy are examples of this. More recently social issues like abortion, guns, and right to die have been used to draw Southern whites into the Conservative camp.

It is better to consider the "Cultural South" in understanding American politics rather than the geographic South. Lynden, WA and rural Whatcom County are more culturally Southern than many parts of the Deep South.

Could we give Lynden to Mr. Harper?
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