South Carolina, it's time. It's time to take that flag down. It's time for the civil war to end. It's time to let it go.

Lindsay Graham (who, to his credit called for it to come down) says that the confederate flag is "part of who we (South Carolinians) are". Is it really?

I get symbols. But symbols only mean what people say that they mean. During that war this was the confederate battle flag. Used to help distinguish friendly units from the enemy. If it symbolized anything, the flag symbolized armed insurrection against the United States.

After the war, when it flew at all, the confederate flag flew at commemorations by nostalgic veterans, and over the graves of soldiers.
During the 50's and 60's the confederate flag came out of mothballs to fly over southern state capitols to symbolize opposition to civil rights (AKA human rights for black people). Since then, whatever the flag meant before, it became a symbol for racists and white supremacists. In addition, it gets hung on pickup trucks by some haters and confused teenagers who want to rebel against something.

It's time for that flag to go to a museum. What about our heritage, some southerners might ask. I ask, why take the darkest chapter of your heritage and celebrate it?

If you want a symbol of your heritage, might I suggest,,,,,,, the flag of the United States of America.
That's the flag your grandfathers served under when it was raised over Iwo Jima. That's the flag they served under when they liberated Rome and Dachau. It's the flag that flew when they marched thru Paris with hundreds of thousands of newly free Frenchmen cheering them on.
It's the only flag that flies over the moon.
It's the flag imprinted on millions of bags of food aid distributed to needy people all over the world after natural disasters and famines.
It's the flag that flies over fallen heroes at Arlington.

There's some heritage for ya.

Agree with all and kudos to the S. C. governor for even suggesting such an idea. 

Another good essay about removing the confederate flag.....

.......So it is that we come at last to what is commonly referred to these days as the Confederate flag. I tell you now, I believe strongly that it should be taken down from the Statehouse grounds in South Carolina. It is something that should have happened before now, and it is certainly a debate that could have waited until after now, but it is nevertheless here. Now. And so it must be taken down. Now.

Let me make a guess. For those of you angered by the statement and ready to rush to the comments, at least half have not yet. Half of those angry and ready to reply in anger have continued to read before doing so. To that half, let me assure you, I have heard what you are going to say. In order: slavery wasn’t really the cause of the civil war, the flag is symbolic of state’s rights, it’s part of our heritage and you can’t get rid of history, many good Americans died even on the Confederate side, and finally, that’s not even the Confederate Flag anyway.

Let me address some of this, in no particular order, and in extreme brief because I find it all terribly unimportant.

One: yes, that was what the Civil War was about. The first year college student attempt at nuance and the amateur historian that pops up in every defensive conservative about slavery is a tiresome character. I will put this as plainly as I can put it: The Civil War was about slavery. Now, even if the civil war was partly about economics or tariffs or state’s rights, or even if the Civil War was mainly about other things, it was still about slavery. The South refused to stop owning slaves. There was a war. The South no longer owned slaves. If there had not been a war, the South would have continued to own slaves. That is the sum of it.

If your cause is even ten percent, even one percent, about continuing to own slaves, then your cause is about continuing to own slaves. You lose the right to nuance when your argument is “well it wasn’t all about slavery” or “there were other factors besides slavery.” Look, there are other ingredients besides sugar in cake. But you’re eating it for the sugar. For the sweet, not the egg. That’s just the facts. You cannot sideline the owning of other human beings. You cannot back seat it. If your cause included “plus also we’d rather not stop owning human beings right now,” you don’t get to say it wasn’t about slavery. There’s no such thing as “per se slavery”. There’s just slavery. Sorry. Tough luck, you lose, but we do have some excellent food recipes as a nice parting gift, y’all.

Secondly, yes, dadgummit, it is the Confederate flag. Sure, it was a battle flag. Sure it was specific to Virginia. Sure it never flew over the Confederate states. But that is a tired objection too. For one thing, it’s not entirely accurate, and I’ll get to that. But mainly it is tiresome because it is so self-defeating. If it’s not really the Confederate flag, or even a Confederate flag, then what heritage are you honoring by keeping it? The whole argument for keeping the flag for sentimental or nostalgic or memorial or historic reasons totally falls down if the same people making the argument also say it’s not really the flag anyway. It’s just not logical. If it isn’t the flag you don’t need it anyway. But it is the flag, the symbol of the Confederacy. And we all know it.

And besides, that little square rebel flag was indeed flown over the Confederacy. Sorry, but that’s just a fact of history. Although Gen. Lee’s battle flag was rejected as the whole and entire flag of the CSA, it was in fact incorporated into the official CSA flag as a canton. It flew over the Confederate Army under Lee. It was part of the flag of the Confederacy. And most importantly, it is recognized today as the symbol of the Confederacy BY THE PEOPLE WHO FLY IT.

What is it that Republicans are fond of saying about ISIS? If they say they are Islamic I believe them. Isn’t that right? If the people fighting to keep the flag flying say it is because of their heritage and because it represents the Confederacy, I believe them. That is why they are flying it. That is what it means to them. It is absurd then to turn around and complain about the fact that that is also what it means to black men and women, to liberals, or to anyone else for that matter. Surpassingly absurd.

So there, we have settled that the flag represents the Confederacy, and the Confederacy fought to continue owning slaves. That ought to be the end of the discussion right there.

There remain the many other important questions and consequences of the Civil War. Federalism and state’s rights. Unjust taxation. The independence of American citizens. But it does not matter because that is not what the flag represents. It is not. That is only the excuse for it.

For a good many people, including many who will no doubt froth with outrage at me, it is simply the symbol of their rejection of the political correctness of liberals. A sort of “you’re not the boss of me” temper tantrum. They want to keep the flag simply because they’ve been told not to. For others, it is a more complicated symbol of keeping our grip on our independence. The idea that we cannot bend or bow to the dictates of the easily influenced crowd when doing so is merely contributing to erosion of our free speech. They will say we cannot simply ban every offensive thing or no things will be left. And for still others (I simply insist you at last recognize and admit this) it just straight out racism. Racism does exist folks. It is a real thing. There are those who have the same kind of racism as dominated the sick mind of the killer of Christians from last week. The kind of racism that constantly assures itself and others that it is not, in fact, racism at all, but simply realism. Those people are part of this too, and in larger numbers than it seems a lot of people care to admit.

And in the end, all of the objections, the lot of them, well they don’t amount to very much. Because the Civil War is simple. The Confederacy fought a war to continue the practice of owning slaves. The United States fought a war and the practice stopped. And continuing to fly the flag of the one diminishes the accomplishment of the other.

The South rebelled. The rebellion is over. The Confederate States are no more. The rebel flag should not be on the Statehouse grounds in South Carolina. Yes, because of racism. Yes, because of hate. Yes, because of perception and symbolism. What is a flag if not a symbol? That is its whole purpose. It is not the symbol of state’s rights or freedom. It is the symbol of owning human beings as slaves. It is the symbol of war against America. It is the symbol of a South that does not, and should not, exist anymore. South Carolina should recognize and understand this, and they should take it off of the capitol grounds. Because it is not a slippery slope of caving to political correctness. there are in fact some things a government should not endorse. Slavery is pretty much right there at the top of the list. Don’t make the battle flag for the Confederacy the battle flag for freedom. It’s the wrong flag for the battle.

Last week, nine Christian Americans were murdered in a House of God as they worshiped. The murderer will face trial, all but certain conviction, and probably the most severe of our penalties. America seeks justice. And though it is untimely, and unwelcome, we must decide how we feel about another injustice, too. It is my belief, along with millions of other Americans, that continuing to fly the flag of the Confederacy on State grounds is a continuing injustice.

“But Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.”

Why can’t we seek the sky? We would do well to hear the cries of those in anguish and provide solace. Do not say with sneering contempt that people want to take the flag down “merely” because it offends black Americans. Say instead that we choose to take it down, in comfort and love of our fellow man.

Take down the flag.

Some relevant reading.

http://theexchange.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=823