The State of Texas is facing a controversy over license plates. The state contracts with a private company called My Plates to make specialty plates which bring in less than a million dollars in state revenue each year. The various charities, etc., that commission the plates take in a collective $2.5 million. And the counties that issue the plates get a collective $56,800.
The controversy surfacing is that the NAACP doesn't like the plates commissioned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Their logo contains {Gasp!} the Confederate battle flag! They find the symbolism offensive. "You might as well have a plate with a lynched black person on there as well as that one because of the signal that it sends. . .Clearly what it's about is racial hostility and hatred," says NAACP Director Gary Bledsoe. Get real, Gary! Just for the record, Essie finds all the MLK and Cesar Chavez Boulevards offensive. And she finds it offensive when Black Panther thugs intimidate voters at the polls and get away with it.
I think the solution is for the state to eliminate specialty plates. What they make off them is less than a drop in the bucket, and that drop plus more is expended fighting ridiculous lawsuits because somebody is offended by one of the plates. The charities will just have to find some other way to raise their funds, and those wishing to display their loyalties on their vehicles can go buy a bumper sticker.
"Rebel flag license plate war not over." The Dallas Morning News; June 23, 2011, p. 5A.
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1 comment:
The NAACP just burns my buns! They spend their time dreaming up things to be offended about. It just needs to go away!
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