5 Ways: For Tampa to Downplay the New Gigantic Confederate Flag

Today I am beginning a new series on my blog. This will be a weekly series where each week I give 5 Ways for something. Some of the themes I am working on include ways churches can be eco-friendly, ways to reuse old church buildings, ways that the church gets it rights, ways it gets it wrong, ways to keep your church relevant, ways to improve Tampa (with plenty of research Will) , ways to keep your pets happy.

As most of you know I love list. I don’t doodle, I write list. When I can’t sleep I think up list (this 5 ways has actually helped sleep better, each night I try to think about one list and work it over in my head some). 4 is to few and 6 is way to many, so I settled on 5. I find its easy to think up 3 ways, but those last few are always hard. Today I’m going to start small and local with the series. So without further adieu…

5 Ways to For Tampa to Downplay the New Gigantic Confederate Flag

Most of you, even those outside of Florida due to its huge international news coverage, have seen the huge (supposedly World’s Largest) Confederate Flag that was recently raised to the top of 139’ pole at the corner of I-4 and I-75. It is less than ¾ of a mile from my house and the whole area has been a hotbed of media lately. So it looks like Tampa (well technically its just outside the city limits) will now have the worlds largest Confederate Flag. At the base of this huge flag will be a Confederate War Memorial Park that will have huge granite slabs that tell the “Confederate side of the story” of the war.

As is expected many people are very upset over this, unfortunately those who own the land filed all the proper paperwork before raising the flag so its staying. So what should the community now do about it?

Here are 5 ideas I have about how the Tampa Bay region can downplay this huge setback to its image.

#1 Build More Worlds Largest

Tampa already has the worlds largest Bowling Pin (found at the Channelside Splitsville), the home of Babe Ruth’s longest home run (found at 401 W John F Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL), the worlds largest Spanish Restaurant (the Columbia in Ybor City), the worlds largest Gone With The Wind collection just up the road in Plant City (yeah even that one surprised me!), and just a few miles east of the Confederate flag is the worlds largest Dinosaur collection with one of the few life size exhibits of the worlds largest dinosaur (found at Dinosaur World in Dover, they are currently seeking approval to expand which will cause it to then become the worlds largest Dinosaur Park, now being held by a closed park in Arkansas, but since the dinosaurs are still there it counts), so why not make Tampa Bay home of more World’s Largest.

The Louisville Slugger display of the Worlds Largest Baseball Bat is partially credited with the redevelopment of downtown Louisville. Or think about the Worlds Largest Fish in Wisconsin that has become a famous and has caused the town to be revived and has since stared in plenty of commercials, TV shows, and a movie. Or think about the world’s largest codfish in Madison, Minnesota.

Now imagine a city or an area embracing these claims and encouraging them to be built. Why not have the worlds largest be Tampa’s claim to fame? They could use them to teach about the local culture like what other Worlds Largest do (I.E. The largest Fiberglass Fish in an actual freshwater fish museum or the worlds largest Baseball Bat teaches of Louisville’s baseball bat making history). Why not have worlds largest pirate ship (truthfully the Jose Gasper in Tampa may already be it but I can’t find anything that says so) or what about the Worlds Largest Strawberry (currently in North Carolina, though it’s a house so Plant City could refute it and possibly when)? Then after the area has plenty of Worlds Largest displays make brochures and websites dedicated to them, much like what Madison County does for its covered bridges or what Gettysburg does for the war monuments/memorials spread around its city. Add these world’s largest to film location databases, post them on all the ads for the Tampa Bay region, get the word out.

People will come for that, a lot more than will come for a huge Confederate Flag. It’s a great publicity stunt that even the Guinness book people may get in on (more free/close to free advertising for the city then). Businesses will also get involved, knowing that there’s a potential for more customers and free advertising they will start building new and bigger displays. Soon the whole area will be a vibrant mish mash of Worlds Largest displays, each teaching a lesson, each attracting more tourists.

It’s a cheap way to downplay the flag while improving the local tourist industry.

#2 Put Up More Flags Of Wars or Former Leadership

The whole point of this gigantic flag is to tell the confederate side of the American Civil War story. So why not put up more flags that flew over the greater Tampa area. This area was discovered by the Spanish, settled by the Seminole Indians, resettled by the English, and then reclaimed by the Spanish before being bought by the Americans. All this time Cubans lived in makeshift villages along its shore. So why not put up giant Spanish, Seminole, English, Cuban, and American flags (I would assume this would be the updated flag of 1818 but I could be wrong). Tampa could even put up a giant pirate flag to teach local history of the actual pirate invasions. Have these flags going from the northern Tampa Bay area to the southern area, with a huge American flag at the end. They could go along either I-75 or I-4. At the foot of each flag would be a park dedicated to that flags history. It would be a great educational tool for the community.

Or what about a flag for the wars fought in Tampa or that Tampa contributed too. Those include the Civil War, the Spanish-American war, it holding a major spot for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and even hub for the current war in Iraq. Why not put flags and history parks teaching the history of those wars. Again they could include the pirates, and even the Spanish-Seminole fights.

By putting up more flags the one Confederate flag is downplayed and thus is no big deal anymore.

#3 Market it as a sign of multiculturalism

Tampa has one of the riches, yet least celebrated, diversities of any city I know of. So why not make this flag a sign of that multiculturalism. Use this as a sign of what Tampa has to offer; put more flags, more parks, and host more festivals based the celebration of different people of different cultures in one city. I would love to see a traditional African style flag on Busch Blvd near Busch Gardens! And maybe a giant Cuban flag over Ybor City.

One not have the Sons of the Confederate Soldiers (who put up the flag) sponsor a booth at one these festivals. Why not encourage more private organizations to build parks with monuments in them. It’s a cheap way for the city to have more parks and to celebrate the uniqueness of the multiculturalism of the area. You could even declare certain parts of the city to its historical roots, have Cuban in Ybor, Haitian flags in the northern area (sorry I can’t figure name of it), and maybe even Air Force flags (or the Squadrons that have called it home) near MacDill AFB.

Imagine if Tampa had another Gasperiala (a yearly festival similar to Mardi Gras but pirates themed based on when the pirates invaded). Have a History Fest, or a huge festival where all kinds’ different cultures come out and celebrate together. This could even go as far having multiple events over the course of a few weeks; you could have Civil War reenactments along with African Tribal dances, beside Haitian cookouts and Cuban cigar displays. The only rule would be it would have to be a historical Tampa culture. That could become bigger than Gasperiala if you did it right!

#4 Become a Civil War educational center

There is no denying that Tampa had a huge role in the Civil War. Recently a group of Civil War boats were discovered in a local river, soon they will be on display at the Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa. Fort Brooke was an important fort along Gulf of Mexico. The Battle of Tampa is by far one of the worst planned battles in any wars history (both sides barely hit each other and not person was severely injured, mostly due to the fact that they were too far away from each other their bullets fell before getting to where they were intended to hit.). With all this Civil War history it maybe time for Tampa to start teaching it again, I know that the new history museum will have a exhibit on it, as will the aquarium as mentioned before. But overall there are few markers, few reenactments, and few places to learn about Tampa’s role in this very important war. This flag could possible be used as a point of historical education.

#5 Use it as a point of beginning

Why not advertise this new flag as a tourist draw in and of itself. Encourage those visiting Tampa to begin here. “Begin your journey with our country’s internal battle.” Then throughout the city teach how Tampa has been a patriotic city since its beginnings. It fully supported the state when the state pulled away, it fully supported the country during the Spanish-American War, and even today it fully supports our country as being host city to some of the Iraq war’s central command(Both CENTCOM and SOCOM are based out of here). With a city full of soldiers, American history, and patriotism why not celebrate it. Have people begin with this flag and then travel along the way seeing the progress of the flag, to a downtown full of modern American flags. Have this be a point of tourism no different than the trolley cars downtown or the great Lowry Park Zoo. Market it as a place to begin a Tampa history lesson, as a place to begin a vacation to Tampa. “At the crossroads of Tampa Bay our first giant tourist attraction welcomes you to begin your vacation, as the family fights on where to go, learn about other who fought on what do.” (There is a reason I didn’t taking marketing in school but you see where I am going with this).

So that is my 5 Ways of Down Playing the new Gigantic Confederate Flag. Sure some ideas are abnormal and some would cost a lot of money, but out of these five I am sure there a few that could happen. Even if these ideas just plants seeds of thought for another person who thinks up a whole new idea of how downplay it then I feel this entry is successful. So all you Tampa Bay folks, lets get on it and rise to the occasion of meeting a not so welcoming flag with an all the more welcoming spirit!

So what are some other ways to downplay this flag? Lets all get thinking about it, talking about it. Complaining about the flag won’t get us anywhere. Its here, like or not, and its not going away (well it actually is but for a small amount of time and it will be back very soon) so instead of just complaining lets figure out ways to downplay it!

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Next week I will be blogging about 5 Ways the church doesn’t get it. This is going to be a big entry, talking about trends that church is jumping that maybe it shouldn’t and then other trends on which maybe it should jump on.

I hope you enjoyed this 5 Ways today. Expect it each and every Thursday from here on out. 5 Way Thursday.