Fox NewsSACRAMENTO, Calif. – California state government departments will be prohibited from selling or displaying items with an image of the Confederate flag under a bill that passed the Assembly on Monday.
AB2444 by Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, is headed to the Senate after passing on a 72-1 vote. Hall introduced the bill after his mother saw replica Confederate money being sold at the state Capitol gift shop, which no longer stocks the item.
He called the image a symbol of racism meant to intimidate.
“Its symbolism in history is directly linked to the enslavement, torture and murder of millions of Americans,” Hall said of the Confederate flag. “The state of California should not be in the business of promoting hate toward others.”
The only lawmaker to vote against the bill was Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, the leading Republican candidate for governor.
“We shouldn’t be here picking the kind of speech we like,” he said. “I am not standing here defending the symbol. I am standing here defending the principle that the First Amendment principles should apply in all state buildings, of all places.”
The bill originally banned all sales of Confederate flag memorabilia on state property. In explaining that provision, Hall noted a sign sold at the state fairgrounds depicting a Confederate flag with the phrase “It’s still my American flag.”
He amended the bill to exclude nongovernment employees and businesses from the ban to avoid violating constitutional free speech protections.
Courts have upheld the rights of individuals to display the Confederate flag while also upholding the rights of government agencies to limit what they endorse.
“We aren’t stifling free speech here,” said Assemblyman Donald Wagner, R-Irvine, calling on Republicans who oppose flag burning to understand the symbolic implications of the Confederate flag. “Here is a symbol that’s so vile, that carries such connotations, that we in the state do not want to be associated with it.”
The legislation would not prohibit Confederate flag images from appearing in educational or historical contexts, such as in textbooks or museums.
Some states have gone the other direction: Earlier this year, Georgia approved a specialty license plate featuring the Confederate flag.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/06/bill-banning-state-confederate-flag-sales-passes/
Well,
Thank God they still allow the flying of the Mexican flag. We sure as hell wouldn’t want to think the United States has been taken over by the enemy!
After all, Mississippi , Alabama, Georgia,Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina really don’t mean anything anymore right? 🙁
Good morning, Mark! Well this old Georgia girl has no problem with the Confederate flag. Like they used to say here in this
neck of the woods, “The South’s gonna rise again!”
Guess it would be racist of me to say that “Gone With the Wind” is
my favorite movie. LOL…..
1611 Believer
I love Georgia, I have driven thousands of miles through Georgia for my work and have loved every bit of it. Hate going through Atlanta, but love the back highways coming in through Alabama. As a city boy, I am in awe of the beauty of the Georgia back woods.
Love to pick up the peanut loads out of the farm areas.
Mark, I appreciate your kind words about my home state. We now live in Florida, but like they say, “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl!”.
I was blessed to attend a one-room school house in rural Georgia back in the 40’s. Normal Rockwell heard about our teacher and traveled to the Oak Mountain school. It is said that those paintings of the old school with the pot-bellied stove and barefoot children were among his favorites.
My parents were share-croppers in those days, and we had very few material possessions. But thanks be to the Lord, we had love of family, plenty to eat, and were being taught to love the Lord and our country!
Because our parents worked so hard to make ends meet, it taught us children the importance of honest, hard work.
Our little wood home burned to the ground one sad afternoon and left us homeless. My precious Father, with a 4th grade education, heard that there was work in Florida.
He and Mother left all 6 children with relatives and drove to Tampa. Daddy found a job with Canada Dry Bottling Company, where he worked hard for the next 30 years until his death.
Mother went to work waiting tables at the diner in the Walgreen’s store in downtown Tampa.
My brothers and sisters and I still laugh about our move to Florida. Our parents, and 6 young children, in a raggedy old pick-up truck with a
tarp covering the back, and all we had to our names in a paper sack. The “Beverly Hilbillies” for sure.
Neither of them made much money in those days, but were able to purchase a small home for us. And again, we never went hungry.
And by the way, there were no food stamps and aide for dependent children, free health care, etc. back in those days. And had there been, my parents would have declined to accept it.
In those days all a man/woman had to do was work hard, be honest and they could have a home, however modest, and plenty to eat. That was what The United States of America was about back in “the olden days”.
@1611 Believer
Amen!!
All you have to do today is hop a border fence, stick your hand out, and your handed $50,000 in instant benefits, cash, drivers licenses and a manual on how to subvert America as you give birth to 15 instant Americans.
If your really lucky you also get a autographed pancho villa poncho in Mexican flag colors.
http://www.biography.com/people/pancho-villa-9518733#synopsis&awesm=~oDurA62KYd4QN3
It does get old listening to jews scream at me for being racists
when their the biggest racists on earth.
My in-laws live in Jasper Georgia. It is beautiful there. I really like going there when I can. Don’t care for Atlanta but the northern part up in the mountains is pure heaven.
Hi, Redhorse! You are right about north Georgia. I call that “The Holy Land”.
Jasper is beautiful!!
Now Atlanta….that is a different story, like all large cities. It was once a lovely town. If I went on to tell you what has happened to it, you might think me a racist. LOL….
My husband and I don’t travel these days, but when we did, we avoided Atlanta like the plague. We got stuck in traffic there one day for hours. A nightmare!!
Thanks again to you and Mark to allow me, in my twilight years,
to write of my wonderful memories of my childhood. In these evil times we are living, they bring me such comfort and joy.
What a dichotomy between the article and the comments in this one – on one side is the California legislature adding more PC crap to the library of 10’s of thousands of laws (in their continuing effort to clean the State down to 172 international flags & Viva la raza stickers –
and on the other, is two that remind me of the time I spent in Georgia back in ’69 – America
Hi, STFB, I just could not help myself, remembering my childhood days in Georgia. You know, back when times were sweet in this country.
Pray your memories of ’69 in Georgia were pleasant ones.
1611 – I was first in Georgia in ’66 on a wild trip from California to Key West – I thought Georgia was beautiful – the dirt was kind of a red color and the trees were so green – and the people were nice (the one’s that didn’t think we were Cal hippies – anyway by June of ’69 faced with the Army’s demand to park me for 9 months – I chose Georgia’s fort Benning over Fort Dix and Lewis – it is a very good memory
That is sadly the norm in the draconian state of Crazifornia. I bet the next thing they will ban is replicas of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard.
Hi 1611 Believer! Thanks for sharing your your story with us.
My family and I moved from Savannah to FT Worth, TX way back in ’63. I still have relatives living there, mostly around Americus which is close to Plains Ga. I have been here in Texas a long time now but I still love my Georgia roots!
If it’s a bad bill, odds are excellent it’s happening here.
Really hate this state.
Considering that the US Supreme Court refused to accept an appeal on a lower-court ruling allowing indefinite detention as authorized in NDAA, how would they rule on a case challenging the California law prohibiting sale of the Confederate Battle Flag?
I predict they would simply refuse to take the case.
Government people are traitors and enemies of the American People, including themselves.