This will be the first ever article written by us, involving red necks driving cars really fast around a race track. Is red neck an offensive word to describe race car drivers? When it comes to stock car racing or Indy car racing I may be like the fool who watches hockey just for the fights. The crashes stand out to me the most. Wrecks that involve flames shooting out. Burning rubber now seems to make sense. I loved the cool looking cars. Seeing all the sponsors intrigued me about car racing. No Chico Bail bonds though. I loved playing the video game Pole position at much younger age. Movies like Days of Thunder and Driven were great on the big screen about the sport car racing. These days it seems like we write whats going on in sport off the field or off the track then the race or game itself. NASCAR is banning the rebel flag. Bubba Wallace is driving in a car with Black Lives Matter plastered all over the race car. While Ray Ciccarelli wants to race his car home after the 2020 season because of the confederate flag ban.

The Confederate flag to me is the General Lee. Bo and Luke Duke driving the orange challenger around Hazard county trying to elude the police. I have to mention the Daisy Dukes, as ZZ Top may have written their song “Legs” just because of Daisy. My point is they had a Confederate flag on the roof of the car. The Confederate flag represented the South in the Civil War decades ago. Some see this flag as hatred. Racism dating back to the days of slavery. Some see it as a band of brothers coming together to defend their homes from the North. Some people use the Confederate flag to represent hatred like it’s the Nazi flag back in World War II. It seems to me like a flag that has too many moving parts. It makes sense to take the Confederate flag down from government buildings. There should only be one flag that unites everyone in a broken nation. A nation that often feels like it was never fixed in the first place.

The Confederate flag at these races is like a hot dog at a baseball game. Bubba Wallace is the only full-time African American race car driver in NASCAR and he suggested the sport move on from the orange flag. What about if a driver wants the Confederate flag on their car? I can see taking the Confederate flag off the poles of the race track itself, but if you want it on your car this is also a no no, now.

The words of Ray Ciccarelli are, “I don’t believe in kneeling during the Anthem. Nor taking people’s right to fly whatever flag they love. I could care less about the Confederate flag, but there are people that do and it doesn’t make them a racist. All you are doing is fucking one group to cater to another and I aint spending the money to participate in any Political BS!!! So everything is for sale.”

I think most people in life misunderstand things. Like Black Lives Matter does not mean everyone who is not black can go straight to hell. The Dutch are the ones who brought African people to this country and sold them as slaves. The Confederate flag people instantly think represents slavery. The Nazi flag means one perfect race with blonde hair blue eyes. The swastika seems to bend their rules on that. I swear I have seen white supremacists have brown hair and green eyes. I think people use the Confederate flag to represent hate. It shows you most people really don’t know the true original meaning of things. They get twisted in present times because of stupid people from generations prior. Like looters going after historical statues across the  nation. Taking their heads off. You could find something wrong with almost everyone famous in this country. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King liked to womanize. Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. Some may have a graveyard, as that closet door may be reinforced steel to hold everything shut.

Bubba Wallace may be the Jackie Robinson of the sport of racing. Doing things to change a sport that has a predominantly white following. Ray Ciccarelli has the right to his opinions. Why does Lebron James suddenly have to chime in on everything? Don’t get me started on his hour long program, “The Decision,” when he left Cleveland for Miami. If Ray Ciccarelli is set for life with money or has other plans, then he should leave the sport. Sometimes it’s best to make a statement on the track and win the race no matter what you believe. For Old Glory we should all stand as one nation under God. Old Glory, the American flag, represents freedom. Many have died fighting for that flag and this country. Maybe you can have freedom of choice when it comes to standing, sitting, or kneeling. You don’t expect a crippled person to stand during the National Anthem. If we all unite with our hand to our heart, for that minute each time the Star Spangled Banner is played whatever way you want or wherever, we come together. You can’t erase American history. You can better yourself after what occurred in Minneapolis. Police reform is a popular choice. Maybe just ending the hiring of the high school bullies as officers, would be a good way to prevent stuff from going down the wrong way. Most of our family genes come from another country. Maybe if we considered ourselves only as Americans, would that help? That is a bad idea because you are erasing the roots of everyone. Their background and history. People should be able to fly their Irish flag or that of wherever they come from. In history, everybody that came to America one way or another, felt unwelcome and hatred. Ask my mother about the Irish. Everyone needs to do more listening then yammering. Understand before you judge jury and execute something that may not mean what you thought. Racing cars will continue to go on without the Confederate flag flying at the track. The parking lot may be a different story. We need to remember they have the right to fly their flag. We have to respect their rights. Maybe we should just simply go and have a conversation about their flag. You may be shocked. Sometimes the scary biker at a party looks like an asshole. Feels like one. Then after a conversation, you realize the person you judged by their cover is the coolest person at this shindig. That is what it’s all about, coming together.