"The Confederate flag is a racist symbol of a failed rebellion. It's not a debate.
"The Confederacy was the most vile and harmful political invention in United States history. It was founded on the explicit principle that slavery is the 'natural and normal condition' of black people, and that they should be ruthlessly exploited to the benefit of their white masters. More Americans died in the bloodletting that followed than in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.
"Where in that story arc is anything worth celebrating? Yet 150 years after the Civil War ended in utter defeat for the Confederacy, a flag of that failed pseudo-nation still flies on public property. And once again, following the killing of nine black parishioners by an apparent white supremacist inside a church in Charleston, South Carolina, we are talking about whether it should.
"This isn't at all a difficult question. There is no place for the flag of a rebellious breakaway region on public property anywhere in the United States.
"It certainly does not belong above a memorial [that is] steps from the South Carolina statehouse, where apparently it cannot ever be lowered -- under force of law.
"White Southerners who support the display of the flag claim it is a symbol of their "heritage," when what they really mean is it reminds them of an imagined past where white people held all the power and minorities were kept properly in their place. . . . "
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I agree with those who say it is time for Confederate flags to be relegated to history museums, not to be flown on government property.
Ralph
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