An Open Letter to the Governor and Legislature of South Carolina

Madame Governor, Ladies and Gentlemen of the State Legislature,

To paraphrase the Governor, it's a sad day in South Carolina. On this day the members of the State Legislature have given in to political pressure and "political correctness" and have turned their backs on both the history of the great state of South Carolina and the men who fought and died in defense of the State from 1861-1865. Today the Legislature voted to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from its position on the flagpole adjacent to the Confederate Solider's Monument, a position of honor and gratitude that was voted on and approved by the State Legislature in 2000 with the cooperation and approval of the NAACP. Now, 15 years later and 14 years into the economic boycott called by the NAACP to protest the placement of the flag which they had agreed to just one year earlier, the State Legislature has kowtowed to the whims and whimperings of these select few and have voted to remove the flag.

As a born and bred Southerner with three ancestors who fought for the Confederacy in the War Between the States, I can think of nothing more dishonorable and disgusting than to remove the Battle Flag under which those brave men of South Carolina fought and died. You have sent a message to the world that South Carolina doesn't care about its war dead; rather, they are more concerned with public opinion on how the state is viewed by those who do not live here. This, in my humble opinion, is cowardice of the worst form. How long before South Carolina turns its back on its dead from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, or the war in Iraq? To say this will never happen is a lie as the events of the past week have proven that, if subject to the right pressure from the right people, the leaders of this state absolutely will turn their backs on their honored dead. And they'll do it all in the name of "equality" or "a new start."

If this is your idea of a "new start," then all I can say is we have vastly different opinions on just what a "new start" is. A "new start" for what? Equality? Really? You remove a flag which I and thousands of other people in South Carolina love and support for all the right reasons in order to placate the vocal few, and you call that "equality?" How is denying me the right to do something over the wishes of someone else "equal?"

The Battle Flag didn't jump down off of the pole and shoot those innocent people in Charleston; a man did. To fall victim to the gross extrapolation of events and irresponsibly lay blame on an inanimate object for the actions of one man is ludicrous at best. The blame for the killings lies at the feet of the man who pulled the trigger, not at the base of a flagpole. That flag had absolutely nothing to do with the killings, was not responsible for it in any way, and I would have thought people intelligent enough to be elected to public office in this state would have been intelligent enough to see that and to place the blame where it belongs. Unfortunately, I am wrong.

I am ashamed of you, Madame Governor; I am ashamed of the members of the State Legislature who voted for political correctness over honoring South Carolina's war dead, and I am ashamed to be living in this state. Rest assured, neither you nor any member of the Legislature who voted for the removal of the Battle Flag will get my support and vote for anything for the rest of my life.

Shame on all of you.

Deo Vindice.

IHC