To me, I think the firing is unjustified. I understand that a Confederate flag can be taken offensively by minorities, but it is in and of itself not a racist symbol. I think it symbolizes the idea of being a rebel against the norm. But anything can be offensive to certain groups and yet it's not a firable offense. I mean, people in Portland were rear ending people's vehicle and injuring them and even setting a house on fire with no concern about killing the people inside because they had a conservative bumper sticker on their car or sign in their yard. No one made a big deal out of that. Now, all that said, if the guy was asked to maybe not fly the flag on school property out of respect, I would hope he'd comply.
I'm no lawyer, but I pretend to be one when PapaG is around, so here's my guess as to how those crooks think. The law is only here to protect the weak and innocent from the big bad bullies, by having the right to shoot anyone the nice police want, of course. Now in the process of protecting us all, for example from horrible violence like verbal threats and family arguments, the law draws a line between political symbols and acts that coerce, intimidate, or provoke a reaction. political symbols: passive, intellectual, no movement to overtly get attention examples: bumper sticker, poster in your house window, message on a t-shirt coerce, intimidate, or provoke a reaction: moving objects fluttering in 3 dimensions, object raised above another object to coerce everyone into looking, anything that might frighten a Southern hick or professional manhater (same ideology), anything that might offend a childish adult claiming to see the world through a child's eyes examples: large Confederate flag raised on an antenna, neon light flashing in your eyes, pornography the S. Carolina US Senate candidate Alvin Greene showed some adult college girl on his computer screen which landed him a felony from the asinine legal system I'm just guessing. But I know how the profiteering jackals think.
What if he parked his car outside of the lot? Fuck the school district. There is a 1st Amendment right to offend, and if you're so sensitive that a Confederate flag offends you, then you're too sensitive to live.
Interesting to note, but I'm not sure the 1st Amendment protects you on this one. The school can decide what they want on their grounds. If the guy had a photo of an aborted baby on his van (I've made the unfortunate mistake of driving next to one of those vans that have pictures of aborted fetus's on them), would it be a 1st amendment argument? Obviously, one wouldn't say that if you're so sensitive (etc), but the school should have the right to have some kind of policy there. I wonder if they told him before hand (it might've said it in the article, I didn't read it). Personally, I don't care if he has one. Its his or her right to chose, just as it's my right to think he's a complete chode for having it.
Why did the school fire him rather than asking him to park his truck off school grounds? It seems they had a problem with his thoughts more than how he festooned his car.
I believe to some people it is exactly like seeing a swastika. It's also the flag of the largest collective group of traitors to The United States of America, so you'd pretty much have to be some ignorant inbred redneck to not expect some people to be upset by it. Which is what he appears to be. Dumbass has probably never even been to the south and now he's jeopardized his family's welfare by "playing redneck". As far as "Freedom" of Speech applies as currently legally interpreted, I think he loses his case simply because it's on school property. I support Freedom of Speech, unconditionally. But there is no guarantee your speech will be warmly received.
I find rainbow stickers, support diversity stickers and Obummer stickers, all piss me off. But its a freedom of speach thing. You cant legislate safety, or teach smart.
I never really got the noise over the confederate flag. It symbolizes less about slavery, racism, etc., than the US flag. The US flag flew over the whole nation when slavery was legal and before secession. It flew over the whole nation while the KKK was doing its worst. It flew over the whole nation during Jim Crow and the indian wars, and so on. On the other hand, the confederate flag is what a few hundred thousand southerners fought under and died under. It as much symbolizes the patriotism (toward the confederacy which was American, like it or not), bravery, and service of those who died. I get that some black people claim it is offensive, but I don't get it. I don't believe that most who fly it or want to fly it do so to be offensive, but to show pride in their region of the country and as tribute to their ancestors. So this begs the question, "what's wrong with secession?" I don't see anything in the constitution that outlaws it. The USSR fell apart into many sovereign states through secession and I don't think any of us are upset about that, nor are the people of those states. And there is a not-too-meaningless secession movement in the state of Hawaii, where we overthrew their government and took their land and moved a bunch of white people in to vote them a state - against the wishes of the native people. If they want their own land and distinct culture back, I don't have a problem with it.
I'm not sure this applies here since it is a school district.. but, companies should be able to fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want.
Hmm, well, Oregon is an at will state. All employers in the private sector have the right to let you go for any reason. As far as the state and federal jobs, they have union reps, tenure etca and are far more protected.
What about if someone is a tea partier or an anti-war protestor? What if someone puts an anti-war sticker on their car? That could be offensive too.
If he's a government employee, he should have complied, then contested the order through his union. Or maybe contested it while not complying. Oops, I forgot the New Order is to be against all that bargaining and negotiating. No more unions.
Some people fly it because of racism. Some people fly it because of southern pride. Some people fly it because they're redneck wannabe's. Different people have different reasons.
Of course it did. You can read the declarations of secession by those states, and slavery was a large part of it. However, nobody banned slavery in those states until 1863, three years after the Civil War started, so they weren't exactly reacting to an attack on slavery per se. There were a lot of other factors involved, like states' rights and particularly the economics of becoming a small number of states trying to procure benefits from the federal govt. against a super majority of states that denied those benefits (but voted them for themselves!).
