Posted on 01/23/2007 5:21:20 AM PST by Rebeleye
Family members of a former Brazos County sheriff said Thursday that a Confederate flag displayed at his funeral was not intended to be offensive.
The flag prompted the Bryan and College Station police departments to pull officers from honor guard duty before Wednesday's funeral for Bobby Yeager.
Members of his family said Yeager, who served as Brazos County sheriff from 1978 to 1984 and was a former detective for the College Station department, asked before his death to have the flag displayed at his funeral.
(Excerpt) Read more at theeagle.com ...
The flag prompted the Bryan and College Station police departments to pull officers from honor guard duty before Wednesday's funeral for Bobby Yeager.
Members of his family said Yeager, who served as Brazos County sheriff from 1978 to 1984 and was a former detective for the College Station department, asked before his death to have the flag displayed at his funeral. They said the display - a small flag placed beneath a floral arrangement - was in honor of Yeager's Southern heritage and his affinity for Civil War history.
The flag has been used as a symbol of Southern pride but also is used by white supremacist groups and is associated with a time in American history when slavery and segregation were condoned.
"It was not the intentions of the family to offend anyone," said Mike Donohoe, Yeager's son-in-law and chief of the Bryan Fire Department. "We were trying to honor his wishes."
But after College Station Police Department administrators became aware of the flag Wednesday, officials decided to remove officers from the honor guard - an assembly of law enforcement officials typically used to honor fallen officers during funeral services. The Bryan Police Department followed suit, leaving law enforcement officers from the Brazos County Sheriff's Department to carry out honor guard duties during the funeral service.
Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk said he was surprised by the display and realized that there would be some people who would consider it controversial, but he decided honoring his former boss was more important. Sheriff's officials remained standing guard at Yeager's casket during visitation and funeral services.
"I decided it was appropriate to honor Bobby Yeager for his service to Brazos County," Kirk said in a written statement. "I acquiesced to the family and respected their right to honor their loved one's final requests."
Kirk said the 2-foot-long banner that covered only a portion of the casket should not be a negative reflection on Yeager's character.
"I have never known [Yeager] to be prejudiced in any way," he said. "I've always known him to treat all people fairly and ethically. I've also known [Yeager] to be a man of his word, a man who spoke frankly and never worried about being politically correct."
College Station Assistant police Chief Scott McCollum said the decision to pull officers from the honor guard was a difficult one, but something he believed was necessary.
"That symbol has negative connotations," McCollum said. "As public officials and public servants, we serve a diverse population, and we want to poise ourselves in the best light. We need to be objective."
Donohoe said Yeager's family would have removed the flag if anyone had suggested it was offensive, but no one did. Donohoe said the family apologized to the Bryan and College Station police departments Thursday.
Both Donohoe and McCollum said they never intended to draw media attention.
"We by no means meant for this to get this much notoriety, and our intention was never to take away from the family, but we had the general public to be concerned about as well," McCollum said. "We recognize and applaud [Yeager's] service to the county, but based on the situation ... we had to consider the people."
Joseph G. Dawson III, a professor of history at Texas A&M University who specializes in American military history and the Civil War, said the Confederate battle flag has long been used in the South to honor the dead. But the flag's negative connotations - re-emphasized during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s - have made it a divisive symbol that carries with it extreme emotions on both sides of the debate.
While some see the flag as a symbol of history and heritage, others see it as a symbol of hatred, he said.
"It's become open to interpretation of who is viewing the flag," Dawson said. "It has become a symbol that has divided Americans instead of bringing them together to discuss history."
He said people on both sides of the issue have the right to display or not display the flag, but anytime it is displayed in public, people should be prepared to draw some criticism.
"For Southerners now to say they are unaware or can't understand why African-Americans are opposed to having the Confederate battle flag flown at public events or being carried by certain groups is, I think, being disingenuous," Dawson said. "It's not asking for it, but it's sure to bring out comments and put people at odds."
"That symbol has negative connotations," McCollum said. "As public officials and public servants, we serve a diverse population, and we want to poise ourselves in the best light. We need to be objective."
We can't have a white southerner celebrating his heritage right smack dab in the middle of Black History Two Months.
Why didn't they just say that in the first place? Wonder if any of the Brazos Co. sheriff's deputies on the casket detail are black.
Bryan and College Station police = politically correct weenies. Such a deal.
No one is more against the Confederate Flag than I am, but this is just silly.
He led an honorable life, let the man be buried in whatever way he wants.
More to the point....how they THINK people will perceive it.
I can undersstand why McCollum is the assistant police chief of that little burg, he's to damned stupid to be a chief making asinine comments as he did here. His attitude leaves a lot to be desired an only shows his lack of mental prowess.
This angers me greatly. I plan to have the Stars and Bars on my coffin when I go. I also plan to have an American flag under my arm. American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!
OH, and by the way, I must have missed the ACLU's press release, saying that they would defend the family's right to free expression.
Beyond ridiculous.
So one flag erases a life-time of service and makes everything else he's done dishonorable? Give me a break!
THAT is inexcusable.... and an incredible sign of disrespect.
No one - and it wasn't "flying," anyway. I don't think it was televised - it wasn't here, but it might have been up there.
As to James Brown, I don't think he's buried yet - last I heard he had been spirited away from his "climate-controlled" living room by who-knows-who but had not been interred in his gravesite, so no one knows where he is!
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