That Civil War icon, became the top story last week when 21 year old Dylann Roof killed nine black people while at bible study in a black church in Charleston, S.C. The killing of people in a church is not new but it is a reminder how sick some people really are and how symbols such as the confederate flag are misused for conveying the wrong message and hateful actions by some like Roof who happen to be white.
The news media, especially the cable news networks spent more hours on the flag than on the actual killings. That is the nature of the news media today. We do know from what police reported the killing was a hate crime and related to racism. They have the evidence from Roofs own mouth and words. They also know that Roof used the Confederate flag in a racial way and that he wanted to start a racial war. They also have pictures of him burning the U.S. flag.
Roof said the Council of Conservative Citizens, whom many call a White Citizens Council, inspired his contempt for black people. Such organizations along with the Ku Klux Klan have been known to use the confederate flag in a racial way. When it was reported the above Council gave political contributions to members of congress, those members said they would return the money or give it to charity. Louisiana's Senator Bill Cassidy and his republican challenger in the U.S. Senate race Rob Maness said they would donate the money they received to the family of those killed. (Per Times Picayune article of 6/28.
Soon after the killings , South Carolina's republican governor asked the state legislature to vote to take the flag down from the state building. Republicans and democrats also said the same thing saying the flag should not fly over the state building. It was the chorus of the same thing from elected officials on the state and federal level and also from some who are running for their party's Presidential nomination.
The sad story is that the confederate flag is taking a beating because so few people know the history of the flag. South Carolina's representative in the U.S. Congress Jim Clyburn told the story of the flag on national TV shortly after the killings. It was the flag of the confederacy and not a state flag or the state flag of South Carolina. It served its purpose during the Civil War and is a part of that history. It has been misused and disrespected by many people and organizations in racial overtones and has been used in that way on purpose.
The Civil War ended over 150 years ago and we are one nation, still under God with one flag. This writer believes only the U.S. Flag should fly over the nations capitol and that the U.S. Flag and States flag should fly over the state's capitol. The confederate flag, its history and what it stood for should be respected and preserved in the nations historical records and be displayed in the proper places where history is told.
The WWII generation has been called the "greatest generation" and the history of that war is told by New Orleans' own WWII museum and others around the country. It is a fitting place to learn the history of that war. So too should there be such places to tell the story of the Civil War and the confederate flag. It deserves that respect for a time in the nations history.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
