<html> At 06:05 AM 11/27/2001, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>Amid all the flag waving in my neighborhood, I thought about buying the original American flag, the classic Gadsden with coiled snake and "Don't Tread On Me" demand, and hanging it from my front porch.   <a href="http://shop.store.yahoo.com/america-store/gadsdenflag.html">http://shop.store.yahoo.com/america-store/gadsdenflag.html</a>   But my wife nixed this idea, saying that the flag has racist connotations. Years ago, she worked with Jim Ridgeway on a CD-ROM (and I believe laserdisc) version of "Blood in the Face," which is, as I'm sure most here know, a docu on the far right/neo-fascist groups and militias prepping for race war and the End of Days. Apparently the Gadsden flag is a fav with this crowd, but I always thought they preferred swastikas and the Stars & Stripes with the stars replaced with a cross. I thought that in the wake of the Patriot Act, the message "Don't Tread On Me" would resonate with my neighbors, who would inquire as to why I was hanging this flag. But my beloved thinks this will make us look like Nazis. What do the enlightened here think?   DP  </blockquote> with all due respects to your beloved, why allow the far right to coopt such a great flag?    time the "good guys" took it back. also, are your neighbors that aware of what the Nazis are doing?  have they forgotten US history to such an extent? wouldn't a little explanation of what the gadsden flag really stands for be important? i'm far from enlightened.  but this is my opinion.    why let the neighbors decide for you? R </html>