In an interview with K. Michael Prince about the battle over the flying of the Confederate flag on the dome of the Statehouse, Sen. McConnell made the following comment:
That’s what I find incomprehensible and regrettable about the NAACP. All the other groups in America history that have had wrongs done to them – women, Indians – have been able to move on. But [blacks] don’t seem to be able to do that. Instead they pick out one emblem and ask people to sentence their ancestors to a reputation of shame.
The absurdity of Sen. McConnell’s comment is breathtaking. It’s clearly Sen. McConnell who hasn’t been able to move on. It’s Sen. McConnell who insists on flying the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds instead of placing it in a glass case.
It’s Sen. McConnell who has picked out the emblem, not the NAACP. And it’s Sen. McConnell who, by requiring our state government (1) to fly the Confederate flag and (2) to refuse to apologize for slavery, is sentencing people whose ancestors were slaves to a reputation of shame.
In fact, further reading of Prince’s book demonstrates that it is Sen. McConnell who has issues that he needs to get over. Sen. McConnell complained to Mr. Prince:
The federal government did to this state what it’s never done to a foreign power. It made war on an innocent civilian population — through naval bombardments of the city of Charleston. And, of course, when Sherman’s men came through South Carolina, they did so with a vengeance. Killed people’s pets! I mean the stories are just awful.
Considering this rant, it is not surprising to read that Sen. McConnell’s Civil War-themed store, CSA Galleries, sells bumper stickers with ridiculous slogans such as “Lest We Forget: The Civil War, America’s Holocaust.”
Wow, it sure sounds like Sen. McConnell is still angry with the federal government for things it did during a war that ended over 140 years ago. I think that it’s time for Sen. McConnell to let go of his bitterness and to “move on.” If he would move on, everyone else could too.
