A friend in Florida, a non-member of the named group, sent me  a snippet of this from an article in the Tampa Tribune  in case we "in the North" were interested:

Seems that at the intersection of U.S. Highway 92 and the I-75 overpass in the eastern part of Tampa, a 50 x 30 foot Confederate flag has been put up by a local Sons of Confederate Veterans group   which   hopes to turn the site into  a park and visitors center, illuminated  for night time use as well.  Member Marion Lambert, a resident of Tampa, said that "we're putting this flag up to build a bridge; this is our cause, to bring dialogue with the community.  People who have a negative outlook on what we're doing..they just have a closed mind. ...The closed mind is everybody's enemy, everybody's nemesis."

 It was hoisted  for the second time on June 14, Flag Day briefly, and then taken down.  The FAA has given approval for a 140 foot flag pole to fly the flag. The organization owns the park property at the northwest corner of Highway 92 and I-75.  The proposed park will include thirty bronze plaques set in  granite, which will tell the visitors of Florida's part in the war.

A number of civil war battles and skirmishes were held in Florida, which was also the site for many of the blockade running ships which  plied the Atlantic during that era.   Little is known by the general public as to Florida's part in the war, and the group hopes to enlighten passersby to the state's  history and participation.  The project has been ongoing since 2004, while members worked to acquire the necessary permits and approvals to make it possible. Now the fund-raising can begin in earnest.

The  Hillsborough county group hopes to raise funds to complete the center project, which should be an eye-catching one to the 200,000 cars which pass the site daily.

A collateral issue appears to be that the flag raising was covered by a local Fox News  reporter, with positive comments all around,  to air later on through the Brit Hume show  on Fox News Channel.  That segment has apparently not been run as of yet, and various calls and questions to the network have gone unanswered. 

Update as of June 24 -- if you were channel surfing at 4:30 a.m. this morning, you saw Brit Hume's program run the footage of the raising of this flag.  The well done story by local Fox journaiist Orlando Salinas, took comments from several of those participating, including at least three African American members who agreed with the flag's being raised,  noting it was part of their heritage as well, and not a racist symbol.  Salinas' only error was in twice referring to the battle flag as the "stars and bars."  That name is reserved for the First National Flag of the Confederacy, a different pattern containing three wide horizontal stripes of red, white and red, with the blue canton bearing a circle of 13 stars.   The battle flag, often called the "soldiers' flag" denoted those men who fought in the Confederate army.  Kudoes to Fox for finally running the good story.

MMB

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