Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow votes to ban use of Confederate flag
Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow votes to ban use of Confederate flag
Members of Glasgow’s Grand Ole Opry country music club narrowly voted to ban the controversial emblem.
Today I learned there was a Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow, which seems very odd.
Also that they had a Confederate flag folding ceremony until October of this year. In Glasgow. And that the ban only BARELY passed on a 48-50 vote. AND the president of the committee resigned over the ban.
There desperately needs to be a Netflix documentary about this whole thing
The Confederate flag had been the centrepiece of a flag-folding ceremony held at the end of each night at the venue.
Every night, in the UK, they folded the flag of a long gone country.
Edit: The end of the article has an explanation for why, so at least there is A reason. I am still amazed.
Maybe it's like in Sweden and Finland where the Confederate flag was seen as a rebel and rock symbol.
Maybe they need a documentary about the civil war over there. Or is slavery that popular in Scotland?
Wait…. I assumed this was some hick town named after Glasgow, but, you know, in the US. (I just checked there is a Glasgow, Kentucky. Americans are really uncreative when it comes to naming things.)
Somebody… make it make sense….
The em.. South will.. em.. rise again?
There is also a Glasgow in Virginia, a small town. Probably named that because of Scottish immigrants. And it's the sort of place early country music would have came from.
Oh, this is the Glasgow? I assumed it was Glasgow, Tennessee or something.
They’ve loved American country music in Glasgow for generations; it’s one of those local peculiarities.
If Nascar can ban the traitor towel, this should have been a completely trivial thing for Glasgow to pull off. That this decision caused this much stir tells you all you need to know about this place.
The club's website explained: "As the Southern states lost the war, and due to the fact that this part of America supplied us then, as now, with most of the trends that influence our music, dress and dance, it is the Southern flag (often called the Confederate Battle flag) which is folded."
The ceremony was accompanied by the 1972 Elvis Presley hit, An American Trilogy, a song which combines the southern Confederacy's unofficial anthem, Dixie, with the northern Union's Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The website added that the occasion "takes the form of a more traditional salute that encompasses both a flag folding ceremony and a number of shots fired in tribute.
"We dedicate the American Trilogy as a salute in memory of all those men and women lost from both sides," it said.
Jesus fucking Christ their explanation is so much worse than I imagined. Just say, 'it's just a show and doesn't mean anything'; lying about honoring the battle flag of the confederacy being "a salute in memory of all those men and women" who fought and died to stop those traitors from destroying their country and preserving slavery is fucking disgusting and a slap in the face to every single one of them. Or just say, 'we hate America and think it's funny,' whatever the actual truth is, just leave the loathsome lies out of it.
I think when you're more removed from the implications it's easier to treat symbols as fun, or to play act. Like how Prince Harry wore that Nazi uniform. It's bad, just saying it's not inherently surprising.
I live in Glasgow and have had the misfortune of visiting the Opry once on a night out. The whole flag folding ceremony plus cosplay gunfight thing they do was all very strange and they took it far too seriously.
Needless to say, I did not return.
Good for Glasgow.
So, do american's not know their own history very well?
Like, the confederates were, literally, the enemy of the united states. I always found it weird that people even brought the flag anywhere with them outside of a museum.
The Opry says this was to commemorate the estimated 620,000 Americans who died during the US Civil War of 1861-65.
The club's website explained: "As the Southern states lost the war, and due to the fact that this part of America supplied us then, as now, with most of the trends that influence our music, dress and dance, it is the Southern flag (often called the Confederate Battle flag) which is folded."
The ceremony was accompanied by the 1972 Elvis Presley hit, An American Trilogy, a song which combines the southern Confederacy's unofficial anthem, Dixie, with the northern Union's Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The website added that the occasion "takes the form of a more traditional salute that encompasses both a flag folding ceremony and a number of shots fired in tribute.
"We dedicate the American Trilogy as a salute in memory of all those men and women lost from both sides," it said.
Wow. Fuck you, Grand Ole Opry Glasgow. You're "honoring" the 350,000+ Americans who fought and died to make sure that flag was never flown and honored again by flying and honoring that flag? Fuck you so much.
Sure, let's just completely treat the South like we are the districts from Hunger Games. This is some bullshit.
this isn't about the south, it's about treason. this is the flag of a nation that never existed.