We can end the divisiveness and the confusion about the Confederate flag, and we can all come together as one community, under the flag of our state and the flag of our nation.
Our state, the state of South Carolina, has a beautiful and powerful flag that we fly proudly. It’s our state flag, the Palmetto Flag. It was designed by Col. William Moultrie in 1775, and in 1861, the South Carolina General Assembly added the palmetto to Moultrie’s original design “to represent Moultrie’s heroic defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan’s Island against the attack of the British fleet on June 28, 1776,” according to scstatehouse.net.
We proudly fly our state flag, the Palmetto Flag, and our national flag, the Stars and Stripes, from atop the dome of the State House. These flags are our sovereign flags — they represent the state and federal government that we in South Carolina offer respect to and demand service from. We ask what we can do for our state and our nation, and we ask what our state and our nation can do for us.
We fly the Palmetto Flag and the Stars and Stripes because they are our official governing flags; they represent the government and the people of our state and our nation.
We must fly these two governing flags. Everybody knows what these flags represent, and everybody knows the sole reason we fly these flags: The flags are our governing flags. The reasoning behind our state’s action to fly the Palmetto Flag and the Stars and Stripes is crystal clear to our government, to our citizenry, and to everybody all over the nation and around the world.
In South Carolina, we also fly a third flag. This third flag is not flown out of necessity. In fact, this third flag is flown for no good reason. Yet it is flown from a flagpole out in front of the State House, at a busy intersection of Main Street, in a confusing manner that strongly suggests that our state government believes in Confederate sovereignty and/or white supremacy. This action by our state government is extremely confusing. It is a “deeply dividing issue” and “everybody has a different perspective.” And those are the words of our Governor, Mark Sanford, from July of this year.
The NAACP, the NCAA, Bob Coble, Steve Spurrier, Joe Darby, Brad Warthen, Frank Wooten, Ron Aiken, etc., etc., etc. (including the majority of South Carolinians) want the Confederate flag to be taken down. During the 1990’s and continuing until today, the SC-NAACP, the SCLBC, and many others have presented all sorts of ideas to reach a true compromise that sends a clear message that everyone could celebrate. Here’s how Rev. Joe Darby expresses his deep desire to responsibly resolve this issue,
“There’s adequate room on the grounds of the Statehouse for the placement of the flag in a position that clearly denotes history and not heritage, and I do hope that it’s found and agreed to sooner rather than later so that the matter can be resolved and so that all South Carolinians can celebrate our shared history and offer appropriate respect to our diverse heritage.”
SC-NAACP president Lonnie Randolph beautifully described this issue as “unfinished business.” Lonnie Randolph wants to responsibly resolve this issue. And a responsible resolution has been put forth in the SC General Assembly. It’s the House Bill 3588 (H-3588) of the 2007-2008 session, sponsored by Reps. Rutherford, Alexander, Hart, Sellers, R. Brown, Whipper and Scott. This bill is simple and wonderful. It completes the 2001 legislation by flying the Confederate flag on Confederate Memorial Day.
The sponsors of H-3588 want our state to fly the Confederate flag on Confederate Memorial Day to honor the service and sacrifice of the Confederate soldiers.
The 2001 legislation made Confederate Memorial Day a regular holiday and installed the flagpole where the Confederate flag now flies. The only modification that H-3588 makes from the 2001 legislation is actually a specification of when to fly the Confederate flag and when to fly the Palmetto Flag from that flagpole. The 2001 legislation did not specify when to fly either of these flags from that flagpole. The current law is Title 1: Administration of the Government, Section 1-10-10.
H-3588 specifies that the Palmetto Flag must fly year-round except for Confederate Memorial Day and that the Confederate flag must fly on Confederate Memorial Day. These specifications make the reasoning behind our state’s action of flying the Confederate flag crystal clear to our government, to our citizenry, and to everybody all over the nation and around the world. We do not fly the Confederate flag to send confusing and divisive messages about sovereignty or race; we fly the flag solely to honor the service and sacrifice of the Confederate soldiers.
What’s the response from people who want to continue flying the Confederate flag year round?
Sen. Glenn McConnell, who makes his money from CSA Galleries, his Confederate memorabilia store, and who feels that he can afford to spend $30,000 for a cannon, questioned the financial motives of his opponents by saying, “Unfortunately, there are vocal people in our culture today who make a living by fanning the flames of intolerance and by selling the bigotry of victimhood.”
Sen. Glenn McConnell, who justifies flying the Confederate flag by saying that the NAACP hurt his feelings, called Steve Spurrier a voice of intolerance and said that anyone who thinks that the 2001 legislation is unsatisfactory is not fair-minded. Sen. Glenn McConnell, who sells bumper stickers that say “Lest We Forget: The Civil War, America’s Holocaust” from his Confederate memorabilia store, accuses people who he calls “flag abusers” of not caring “that their rhetoric picks at old wounds, threatens to re-ignite old passions and panders to the politics of division.”
Sen. Glenn McConnell, who spends his free time reenacting Civil War battles and who wants people to join his brigade for re-election, declares that it is he who must be (and won’t be!) persuaded that the Confederate flag represents bigotry or slavery before he agrees to take it down: “What does the Confederate battle flag stand for as it flies adjacent to the soldier’s monument? At such a location, no one can persuasively argue that it represents bigotry or slavery.”
Their response is to keep fighting the old fight, using hypocrisy, insults, and ignorance.
They don’t understand that they have to justify flying the flag. They must convince the government, the citizenry, and everybody all over the nation and around the world that South Carolina is not dividing and confusing people by flying the flag. They have to argue that no one can reasonably believe that the state government’s action of flying the Confederate flag supports Confederate sovereignty and/or white supremacy. It’s their argument that we, the people of South Carolina, judge to be unpersuasive.
Moreover, they falsely equate taking down the flag with surrender and shame. They’re not listening when we say that we want to resolve the issue with a true, win-win, compromise that honors the Confederate flag by flying it on Confederate Memorial Day. With this compromise, we’re honoring the Confederate soldiers as we honor no other specific group of soldiers, by having a regular state holiday complete with a commemoration that includes the flying of the Confederate flag. This is a win-win proposal that honors Confederate soldiers and their flag with a clarity that everyone can appreciate.
They try to distract us by saying that we shouldn’t focus on this issue because there are more important issues that we should focus on. This is an attitude of paternalism and segregationism. First of all, we can choose what we want to focus on, and we can work on more than one issue at the same time. And when such a simple and responsible solution, H-3588, comes along, it’s ludicrous for them to insult us for advocating for the bill. Second, when they say we should prioritize things like AIDS or crime, they send the message that people in the black community have problems that must be solved by the black community in isolation. The answer to this segregationist message is that we are all one community, living and working together – we are all brothers and sisters.
They say that we’re untrustworthy and will want more and more and more. As Sen. Glenn McConnell described it, “They [flag-supporters] argued that moving the flag from the dome to a different location would not satisfy critics permanently – that soon they would be making harsher demands.” This is a false argument that promotes racial segregation, assumes white supremacy, and doesn’t appreciate democracy. The NAACP has consistently, over a period of many years, pointed out the confusing (Confederate sovereignty?) and divisive (white supremacy?) interpretation that many people reasonably make about our state government’s action of flying the Confederate flag. The NAACP’s boycott, which is supported by the NCAA’s ban on prescheduled postseason games, is focused completely on this one issue.
They say that this issue is completely unimportant and that we’re wasting everyone’s time, and anyway a bill like H-3588 will never pass because of the 2/3 vote requirement the legislature imposed in 2001. This argument is false on its face because if the issue was so unimportant then why are they taking so much time and energy to fight us? Moreover, this issue is a defining issue for our state. Because we fly the Confederate flag, everybody knows South Carolina, in the words of Sen. Barack Obama, as “South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies.” Additionally, the 2/3 requirement is simply a legislative hurdle that can be removed with a majority (1/2) vote. It’s not a hindrance to action at all.
Finally, they say that our logic is faulty because if we justify taking down the flag because it’s offensive, then that logic would force us to take down the Palmetto Flag (because South Carolina used it as its “national flag” after secession) and the Stars and Stripes (because sometimes the KKK carries it and because slavery was legal in the United States until President Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation). Their argument is completely false because they totally misrepresent our rationale. We justify taking down the Confederate flag because the action of flying it so prominently from Statehouse grounds is confusing and divisive. As I described above, it is not the least bit confusing why we fly the the Palmetto Flag and the Stars and Stripes.
In conclusion, we are fair-minded people working for a win-win resolution to a divisive issue. We are eager to work with people who want to come together with us as one community, under the flag of our state and the flag of our nation. People who prefer to criticize or insult us based on their own faulty arguments and their own insufficient justification for their demands are choosing the wrong path. Let us choose the right path, the path of respect, responsibility, and resolution. Let’s end the divisiveness with unity. Let’s end the confusion with clarity. Thank you.
