Hope

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Harold Livingston, assistant manager of a gas station near his home, said today he was wondering why so many people were stopping at his house and taking pictures. One of the photographs ended up being posted at politico.com, a national political Web site....

Livingston says he’s the one who put up the Confederate flag and his wife, Brenda, is the Obama supporter.

Although some people regard the Confederate flag as a racist symbol, Livingston said that’s not the case. Those who think the flag is racist are probably racist themselves, he said.

“I think it’s (the flag is) about the South and it’s a pretty flag,” he said.

In the Livingstons’ back yard, a pirate flag flies atop another flagpole. The flags aren’t about politics, he said.

“I don’t vote,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what president we have."

The bigger problem, he said, is members of Congress who serve more than eight years, the maximum a president can hold office,

Brenda Livingston is a nurse practicing in Mooresville. A registered Republican, she has canvassed for Obama, a Democrat, and even met Michelle Obama, the wife of the Illinois senator.

Harold Livingston, who says he’s an atheist, said, “We don’t talk religion or politics.”