My appearance on WIS about the flag plane

wistv.com – Columbia, South Carolina

I’ve long thought I fit in the category of people with a face made for radio, but yesterday I even flubbed the talking part a couple of times — and of course, the stumbles made the final cut, since they were in the middle of my most pertinent quotes.

Oh, well. I didn’t set out to be on TV yesterday, but I was asked to after that brief post about the “Confederate Air Force” yesterday, and I generally say “yes” to media requests and speaking engagements.

I did hesitate on this one. I wrote about the flag hundreds of times when it was actually still an issue. Now that it’s behind us completely, I generally stay away from it (and I have little or no interest in the other Confederate controversies around the country, such as what’s happening in New Orleans). But the plane pulling the gigantic imitation naval jack (not the battle flag South Carolinians served under in the Army of Northern Virginia) was a bit hard to ignore, which was the point, of course.

Since this was shared with me by one of my kids via Facebook this morning, I’ll inflict in on y’all…

2 thoughts on “My appearance on WIS about the flag plane

  1. Burl Burlingame

    Yeah, you looked a little peevish. Like, “THESE guys again?”

    How about at every Confederate flag-raising, an exhibition of street theater of slaves being whipped?

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Reminds me of one of my favorite instances of dark humor that could REALLY be misinterpreted.

      The one semester I was at the University of South Carolina, in the fall of 1971, I reconnected with some guys I’d known at Bennettsville High School that one year I went there, four years earlier, while my Dad was in Vietnam.

      One of them who lived on a farm in those parts, and who spoke with an extremely slow drawl that I always THOUGHT he exaggerated for comic effect, but it was hard to be sure, because he never broke character.

      He especially seemed to enjoy playing the part around fellow students from other parts of the country.

      Once, in the company of a guy from Long Island, he was complaining about his lot in life, and moaned, “Ohhhh, ah wish ah wuz back home on the farmmmm….”

      The Long Island guy snapped, “Why? What the hell is there to do there besides pick the cotton and beat the slaves?”

      The country boy did not miss a beat, correcting the apparent misconception by saying, “Wayull, ya know… It’s not ALL fun…”

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