It took a lot of searching, but I finally accessed the Tampa Tribune on line and discovered the story. Oddly enough, immediately after I located the article in a listing of stories in the online edition of the paper, it suddenly disappeared from the list. I went back to the page where it appears and it was there, but there are no links to take you there on their other pages now. I simply sent the reporter under whose byline the article appeared an e-mail note about this. Her ego should be enough to force them to restore the link.

Rebel Flag Central In Suit
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com
Published: Mar 12, 2003

TAMPA - Larry A. Carpenter is a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans who displays a Rebel-flag license plate on the front of his 1970 pickup truck. When his supervisors in Tampa's Public Works Department ordered him to remove the flag or park his truck off city property, he rebelled.

He ignored repeated warnings that he could be fired. He was cited for insubordination, fired from his job as a traffic maintenance specialist in September and denied unemployment benefits. He fought back and won his benefits.

Now, Carpenter, 47, has taken his battle to federal court, where he sued the city Tuesday, saying it denied him his First Amendment rights.

Carpenter's attorney, J. Benton Stewart II, said his client is not a racist and does not promote white power. Carpenter lives in an integrated neighborhood and had a black business partner, Stewart said. According to Stewart, Carpenter says he's proud of his heritage and merely wants the city to develop a written policy that is fairly and uniformly applied.

Stewart said other city workers park on city property with political slogans and offensive statements on their vehicles. He said another employee has a large Confederate flag attached to his truck, which is parked on city property.

City Attorney Jim Palermo declined to comment Tuesday.

Stewart noted that Hillsborough County used to have a Confederate flag in its official logo. The county changed the logo in 1994, but Stewart said the old emblem can be found in county buildings.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see anti-war sentiments displayed on the vehicles of city employees parked on city lots or even black power decals and flags for the separatist black nation. When will people get it through their heads that the Saint Andrews Cross battle flag of the Confederacy does not stand for slavery to every southerner? There are many who feel that the southern states were legally entitled to voluntarily withdraw from a voluntary association into which they had entered. Legal scholars agree that this was the case, however, those states became the involuntary prisoners of the central government that had long abused its citizens and continue to do so to this day.

See for yourself. Read the Voting Rights Acts - every one passed. All of them impose restrictions on the powers of state legislatures to draw up political districts within their states ONLY on the southern states - no other state! That was supposed to be UNConstitutional, but it is permitted. There are many more impositions on the rights of the people in only certain southern states that do not apply to those in other states. They ONLY apply to the states that were a part of the Confederacy.

If there is any slavery being upheld anywhere, by anyone, it seems to me to be that imposed on southerners... black and white alike. I'll fly my Stars and Bars and to Hell with those who are too dense or too intent on political correctness to understand what it really stands for.