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Title: Removal of Confederate flags from cemetery sparks controversy
Source:
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URL Source: http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/29 ... om-cemetery-sparks-controversy
Published: May 16, 2015
Author: Lindsey Rogers
Post Date: 2015-05-16 19:38:10 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 6839
Comments: 19
UNION SPRINGS, AL (WSFA) - A prominent attorney admits to taking flags from the graves of soldiers, a move that's sparked both positive reaction and calls for him to be arrested and disbarred. He's also received death threats and hate mail. The lawyer says his actions are meant to promote unity. A bag of small Confederate flags sits at Union Springs City Hall. They were removed from graves at an old Confederate cemetery downtown, behind the Red Door Theater, near the intersection of Highway 82 and North Prairie Street. Myron Penn pulled up the flags with his family on Mother's Day. Penn, a founding partner at Penn & Seaborn Attorneys at Law in Union Springs, who served as state senator for two terms and as chairman of the Bullock County Commission, says he did it for his 4-year-old son. “The reason why we picked them up is because the image of the flags in our community, a lot of people feel that they're a symbol of divisiveness and oppression of many people in our community,” Penn said. “Especially with the history that that flag and the connotation and negativism that it brings. I would think that no one in our community would have a problem with this or with my actions at all.” While some support what Penn did, others are outraged. The story has spread on social media. “I just thought it was great when he did that. He said that he came up there with his little boy and i thought it was absolutely great,” said Tchernavia Blackmon, a Union Springs resident. “He did the right thing. I wish I had been out there to help him pick up the flags. He did a great job.” “It's not about race or the flag or anything else. It's about decency and respect for the dead. You don't do stuff like that,” added Rebecca Atkins. “You got to give respect where it's deserved and those soldiers gave their lives just like any other soldier gives their lives. It's nothing racial and it's not about discrimination. You look at the person who served for our country and that's what matters.” Others say it was criminal, citing Alabama Code 13A-7-23.1 which states that it's against the law to “willfully and wrongfully or maliciously destroy, remove, cut, break, or injure any tree, shrub, plant, flower, decoration, or other real or personal property within any cemetery or graveyard.” Penn responded to the backlash and says no laws were broken since he left the items at City Hall for anyone to claim and pick up. He says the city typically removes the flags after Confederate Memorial Day anyway. “I invite anyone to say how I've broken the law by removing the flags,” Penn said. “They're making my point with the ugly comments and the meanness. It's exactly why those flags shouldn't be there in our community because that's not what our community stands for. We want our community to grow. We want all of our people, especially our children to feel as though they're growing up in a community that is not divided. I would think that everyone here in Bullock County feels the same way.” While the cemetery is inactive, it is city-owned and maintained so we turned to Union Springs officials for comment. Calls to the city attorney were not returned Friday and she was not in her office early in the afternoon. The mayor, Saint T. Thomas Jr., was not in the office Friday, but over the phone, he briefly discussed the matter. He says an outside group came into Union Springs to set the flags out at the cemetery and that they were in the wrong, not Penn. “Something happened that should not have happened. The group who put them down should have asked for permission from the city council. They had no business putting them out in the first place,” Thomas said, calling it “illegal activity.” 
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
(Edited)
Let his unity begin with 6 months making big rocks into little rocks.
Bunch of ignorant niggers with PC educations.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
Theft of items from a grave site is a crime, or so I thought. Why hasn't this thief been arrested?
Huh, what? You need to "ask permission" to decorate a grave? And some folks still insist that we live in a free country.
Congratulations, you broke the code!
Why, he is an officer of the court, a member of the elite, a member in good standing of the bar with an esquire after his/her/or it's name. < /sarcasm> A lawyer, like Calhoun
Why hasn't this thief been arrested? Because that sort of thing is only a crime if white people do it.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
Yeah... the kid is 4-years-old, fer cripesake...
And his daddy should be killed on the spot if he did. You still buy that shit about slavery being the cause of the War of Northern Aggressions,don't you? I bet you even think Lincoln freed the slaves and that nobody in the north owned slaves. Ignorance CAN be cured,but first you have to recognize it.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
How perfectly evil and hateful of you to say that. My family never owned slaves. During the Great Depression my family gave lots of food and milk to poor blacks they counted as friends. We lost relatives fighting for states rights. You are so full of hate it has blinded you to love for your fellow man. And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined* in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. Psalm 12:6
What a bunch of BS! That Mayor Saint T. Thomas Jr is an ignorant azzhole, making crap up to try to defend a fellow azzhole of the same tribe. Just about every where across the nation, on Memorial Day, members of the American Legion, VFW, and other veterans groups, at their own expense and time, go to local cemetery's and decorate graves of veterans with American flags. They are not required by any law that I have ever heard of to first obtain permission from any body to do so. I would guarantee that if anyone even suggested that permission was needed from any govt official / body or even from the family of the deceased, the person making that suggestion would be laughed out of the state, and declared to be a lunatic. I know locally, they even decorate graves of soldiers that fought for the confederacy with American flags. The idiot that removed the flags, and the stupid mayor are both azzholes. They are both narcissistic jerks looking to pick flyspecks out of the pepper, at the best. If one of the graves was of one of my relatives, and I had been there, that jerk would have gotten a strong message to back off. Anyone that supports the idiot lawyer, & the idiot mayor, are azzholes too!!
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Really? What made him think his actions would promote unity? It obviously didn't, and no one's surprised it didn't. Just the opposite.
I read that the community is pretty much evenly divided on this, I would guess probably along racial lines. The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization has a protest rally planned for June 10th. I am pretty familiar with the area. Three of my great-grandfathers were from Montgomery and fought with the Confederacy. I don't know which Regiment Alabama Infantry they served in.
Really? What made him think his actions would promote unity? " He knows that is BS. He is just trying to justify his illegal act. Too bad there were no family members of the deceased there at the time to have broke his damn arm.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
100 years ago it would have been a rope and a tree. See how far we've come?
That would have been most appropriate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Willie, there have been times I have agreed with your post, and there have been times I have disagreed with your post. This post I will have to say shows you are a F ing IDIOT !
Si vis pacem, para bellum
The lawyer says his actions are meant to promote unity.
#2. To: A K A Stone (#0)
#3. To: BobCeleste, A K A Stone (#1)
Let his unity begin with 6 months making big rocks into little rocks.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#4. To: A K A Stone (#0)
“Something happened that should not have happened. The group who put them down should have asked for permission from the city council. They had no business putting them out in the first place,” Thomas said, calling it “illegal activity.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#5. To: sneakypete (#2)
Bunch of ignorant niggers with PC educations.
#6. To: Deckard (#3)
Why hasn't this thief been arrested?
#7. To: All (#6)
#8. To: Deckard (#3)
Theft of items from a grave site is a crime, or so I thought.
#9. To: sneakypete (#2)
Bunch of ignorant niggers with PC educations.
His Dad oughta be teaching him how to stand over
those graves and piss on those flags like a Man.
#10. To: A K A Stone (#0)
(Edited)
The mayor, Saint T. Thomas Jr., was not in the office Friday, but over the phone, he briefly discussed the matter. He says an outside group came into Union Springs to set the flags out at the cemetery and that they were in the wrong, not Penn. “Something happened that should not have happened. The group who put them down should have asked for permission from the city council. They had no business putting them out in the first place,” Thomas said, calling it “illegal activity.”
Mayor Saint T. Thomas, Jr
#11. To: Willie Green (#9)
His Dad oughta be teaching him how to stand over those graves and piss on those flags like a Man.
#12. To: Willie Green (#9)
(Edited)
Yeah... the kid is 4-years-old, fer cripesake... His Dad oughta be teaching him how to stand over those graves and piss on those flags like a Man.
How many poor white people have you helped?
#13. To: Gatlin (#10)
" the group who put them down should have asked for permission from the city council. They had no business putting them out in the first place,” Thomas said, calling it “illegal activity.” "
#14. To: A K A Stone (#0)
"The lawyer says his actions are meant to promote unity."
#15. To: Stoner (#13)
Anyone that supports the idiot lawyer, & the idiot mayor, are azzholes too!!
#16. To: misterwhite (#14)
" "The lawyer says his actions are meant to promote unity."
#17. To: Stoner (#16)
"Too bad there were no family members of the deceased there at the time to have broke his damn arm."
#18. To: misterwhite (#17)
" 100 years ago it would have been a rope and a tree. "
#19. To: Willie Green (#9)
" the kid is 4-years-old, fer cripesake... His Dad oughta be teaching him how to stand over those graves and piss on those flags like a Man. "
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