I am going to steal one of many Fang's quotes....for the love of GOD, please get rid of or burn the damn flag......and how do you feel about it?
[h=1]Charleston blacks, whites unite, but remain divided on flag[/h]
David Goldman / The Associated Press
Barbara Lloyd, of Charleston, S.C., cries Friday as she joins hands with mourners during the singing of "We Shall Overcome" at a memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on Wednesday night.
By: Daniel Dale Washington Bureau, Published on Fri Jun 19 2015
CHARLESTON, S.C.—The killer tried to divide Charleston’s communities, the mayor said, but instead brought them together.
This was not mere mayor-speak. The day after a white man was arrested for the murder of nine members of a black church, Joe Riley’s Bible Belt city was the picture of racial unity. Right behind him, in front of the church, blacks and whites joined hands in public prayer, offered each other consoling hugs, left bouquets side by side.
Then they were asked about the Confederate battle flag.
“It should be burned. It should be burned,” said Janie Jackson-McClinton, a 51-year-old black woman.
“I don’t know how they look at it from their side. But from our side, it’s just part of the heritage,” said Pam Ridgway, a 63-year-old white woman.
“Racism. Slavery,” said Candice White, a 41-year-old black woman.
“It doesn’t just represent hatred or racism,” said Scott West, a 26-year-old white man. “It also represents the South.”
Dylann Storm Roof, the man accused of the murders, was photographed posing in front of a car with a Confederate flag decal on its licence plate. The photo, and the alleged racial motive for the violence, has reignited one of South Carolina’s most bitter and long-running debates: whether the flag should continue to fly at the state capitol in Columbia.
“Some will assert that the Confederate flag is merely a symbol of years gone by,” Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, said at a Charleston news conference on Friday. “A symbol of heritage and not hate. But where we see that symbol lifted up as an emblem of hate, as a tool of hate, as an inspiration for hate, as an inspiration for violence, that symbol has to come down.”
The flag was used by the Civil War’s pro-slavery South. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. The state government raised the red, blue and white flag again in 1961 — the centennial of the Civil War, but also, not coincidentally, the middle of the civil rights movement.
The government came up with a “compromise” in 2000: the flag would be removed from the capitol dome and hung instead at a memorial to Confederate soldiers. But its sanctioned presence anywhere on state grounds is seen by many blacks as an affront.
“Anything that has anything to do with prejudices and segregation, I have a concern about,” said Catherine Harrington, 59, the sister of Myra Thompson, one of the murder victims. “I think now we should be able to move forward.”
The flag was particularly conspicuous on Thursday. Other flags were lowered to half-staff. The Confederate flag remained at its regular height. Under the compromise law, it cannot be lowered.
On Friday, Democratic state legislators said they would push to have the flag permanently removed. They face long odds. The Republican governor, Nikki Haley, has repeatedly defended the flag. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican presidential candidate, called it “part of who we are.”
South Carolina’s blacks and Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the flag. But its whites and Republicans overwhelmingly support it, arguing that it honours the South’s war dead without glorifying slavery. White Republicans dominate state politics.
“They’re not ready for change yet. I don’t see it in my generation. I don’t see it in my kids’ generation,” said Rasheed Ali, a 57-year-old NAACP member. “This is a Republican stronghold. And the Republicans live and die for the Confederacy, for the most part.”
One Republican, State Rep. Doug Brannon, announced Friday night that he plans to introduce a bill to remove the flag. Brannon said he wants to honour his murdered friend Clementa Pinckney, a Democratic state senator and the pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Hundreds of whites visited the memorial outside the church earlier Friday to express sympathy and solidarity, some of them sobbing and shaking. Debra and Terry Flowers, bed-and-breakfast owners who live a block away, left a card.
Debra, 59, rolled her eyes when told of the renewed effort to get the flag taken down.
“Can we just leave it alone?” she said. “It wasn’t something we did. Unfortunately, our ancestors — but we can’t take responsibility.”
Sherry Ramsey, 54, arrived at the church with a hand-coloured sign that said “Love Thy Neighbor.” She defended the flag passionately.
“A lot of people got killed during that war. And that’s kind of in honour of them. So people shouldn’t look at it as a racism flag,” she said.
Then, haltingly, she began to reconsider.
“Even though that’s kind of why they were fighting. I don’t know. I’m confused about it. It’s something that wasn’t even worth fighting for. I mean, it was worth fighting for, and thank God we did fight for it. But too many people do see it as symbolic of slavery and all.
“So maybe they should take it down. I don’t know.”
[h=1]Charleston blacks, whites unite, but remain divided on flag[/h]
Barbara Lloyd, of Charleston, S.C., cries Friday as she joins hands with mourners during the singing of "We Shall Overcome" at a memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on Wednesday night.
By: Daniel Dale Washington Bureau, Published on Fri Jun 19 2015
CHARLESTON, S.C.—The killer tried to divide Charleston’s communities, the mayor said, but instead brought them together.
This was not mere mayor-speak. The day after a white man was arrested for the murder of nine members of a black church, Joe Riley’s Bible Belt city was the picture of racial unity. Right behind him, in front of the church, blacks and whites joined hands in public prayer, offered each other consoling hugs, left bouquets side by side.
Then they were asked about the Confederate battle flag.
“It should be burned. It should be burned,” said Janie Jackson-McClinton, a 51-year-old black woman.
“I don’t know how they look at it from their side. But from our side, it’s just part of the heritage,” said Pam Ridgway, a 63-year-old white woman.
“Racism. Slavery,” said Candice White, a 41-year-old black woman.
“It doesn’t just represent hatred or racism,” said Scott West, a 26-year-old white man. “It also represents the South.”
Dylann Storm Roof, the man accused of the murders, was photographed posing in front of a car with a Confederate flag decal on its licence plate. The photo, and the alleged racial motive for the violence, has reignited one of South Carolina’s most bitter and long-running debates: whether the flag should continue to fly at the state capitol in Columbia.
“Some will assert that the Confederate flag is merely a symbol of years gone by,” Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, said at a Charleston news conference on Friday. “A symbol of heritage and not hate. But where we see that symbol lifted up as an emblem of hate, as a tool of hate, as an inspiration for hate, as an inspiration for violence, that symbol has to come down.”
The flag was used by the Civil War’s pro-slavery South. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. The state government raised the red, blue and white flag again in 1961 — the centennial of the Civil War, but also, not coincidentally, the middle of the civil rights movement.
The government came up with a “compromise” in 2000: the flag would be removed from the capitol dome and hung instead at a memorial to Confederate soldiers. But its sanctioned presence anywhere on state grounds is seen by many blacks as an affront.
“Anything that has anything to do with prejudices and segregation, I have a concern about,” said Catherine Harrington, 59, the sister of Myra Thompson, one of the murder victims. “I think now we should be able to move forward.”
The flag was particularly conspicuous on Thursday. Other flags were lowered to half-staff. The Confederate flag remained at its regular height. Under the compromise law, it cannot be lowered.
On Friday, Democratic state legislators said they would push to have the flag permanently removed. They face long odds. The Republican governor, Nikki Haley, has repeatedly defended the flag. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican presidential candidate, called it “part of who we are.”
South Carolina’s blacks and Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the flag. But its whites and Republicans overwhelmingly support it, arguing that it honours the South’s war dead without glorifying slavery. White Republicans dominate state politics.
“They’re not ready for change yet. I don’t see it in my generation. I don’t see it in my kids’ generation,” said Rasheed Ali, a 57-year-old NAACP member. “This is a Republican stronghold. And the Republicans live and die for the Confederacy, for the most part.”
One Republican, State Rep. Doug Brannon, announced Friday night that he plans to introduce a bill to remove the flag. Brannon said he wants to honour his murdered friend Clementa Pinckney, a Democratic state senator and the pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Hundreds of whites visited the memorial outside the church earlier Friday to express sympathy and solidarity, some of them sobbing and shaking. Debra and Terry Flowers, bed-and-breakfast owners who live a block away, left a card.
Debra, 59, rolled her eyes when told of the renewed effort to get the flag taken down.
“Can we just leave it alone?” she said. “It wasn’t something we did. Unfortunately, our ancestors — but we can’t take responsibility.”
Sherry Ramsey, 54, arrived at the church with a hand-coloured sign that said “Love Thy Neighbor.” She defended the flag passionately.
“A lot of people got killed during that war. And that’s kind of in honour of them. So people shouldn’t look at it as a racism flag,” she said.
Then, haltingly, she began to reconsider.
“Even though that’s kind of why they were fighting. I don’t know. I’m confused about it. It’s something that wasn’t even worth fighting for. I mean, it was worth fighting for, and thank God we did fight for it. But too many people do see it as symbolic of slavery and all.
“So maybe they should take it down. I don’t know.”
