Posted on 06/22/2015 8:41:18 PM PDT by Nextrush
Deep, strong feelings exist on both sides of the Confederate flag debate, but a majority of South Carolina lawmakers dodged attempts on Monday to pin down where they stand......
The Post and Courier reached out to all 170 House and Senate members......
By 6:30 p.m., those in the House supporting removal outnumbered opponents by a 4-to-1 margin. But less than half of the chamber had returned calls or emails........ Across the aisle, only 19 of 46 Senators had weighed in.
State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, said a lot of discussions are probably going on behind the scenes, but he thinks the writing is on the wall: the flag is coming down......
Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, expressed similar sentiments and said he supported the flag's removal. "For many, the flag stands for traditions of heritage and that's not hate," he said. "But the fact is, hate groups have misappropriated this flag and made it a sign of their hatred. It may not be right, but that's a fact."
But other lawmakers who responded to The Post and Courier's poll firmly disagreed and vowed to fight any effort to remove a flag......
"People look at it as honoring their heritage and the ancestors who fought in the war," Rep. James 'Mike' Burns R-Greenville, said. "They have a place in history and people want the observation made, not placed in a dark closet and hidden away somewhere."
Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Woodruff, said the issue had already been decided with the compromise that removed the flag from the Statehouse dome in 2000 in favor of a location on the grounds.
"This needs to go no further," he said. "It has been settled already. A compromise is a compromise."
Others said they were undecided......
(Excerpt) Read more at postandcourier.com ...
Looks like the state legislators in upstate SC like Greenville-Spartanburg are not marching in lockstep with the GOPe at this point.
And to those posters trying to link the flag to Democrats, note the supporters of its flying today have R's next to their name.
Those 9 folks that were killed by that nutter were not killed by a flag.
Clearly if the confederate flag did not exist all those people in the church would not have been killed. What idiots.
By taking down the flag they ensure no mass killings will ever happen again. Double idiots.
If we had only banned Beatle songs after the Manson murders, If we had only banned dogs after the Son of Sam murders...
Indeed they weren’t.
Its as foolish as Senator Pat Toomey, Republican, of my state coming out for gun control after the school massacre in Connecticut a few years ago.
Flags and guns are not the problem here.
Every time someone asks the question, the legislatures should respond "Thank you for asking about my efforts to improve education in our state", or whatever it is they are working on.
The topic should not be acknowledged, and neither should the rabble rousers.
This is another one of those "Have you stopped beating your wife? " Sort of question. It is only intended to damage, not to actually solve anything, and as the WOPR computer said: "The only winning move is not to play."
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My house member has said yes to bringing down the flag. I won't forget it, when election day comes. My senator has not replied so far... he obviously needs a phone call and be reminded of Gov. Beasley's fate when he messed with our flag.
It’s the Democrats problem, they are the ones with the flag.
Yup! I read about that in the Blaze, lots of good articles, Daily Caller too.
“But the fact is, hate groups have misappropriated this flag and made it a sign of their hatred. It may not be right, but that’s a fact.”
So, Mr. Davis, I guess that means you’re a typical republican coward who runs and hides from hate groups instead of confronting them head on.
“Never let a crisis go to waste”
Thanks for your post by the way, this article shows there was even another button showing Clinton Gore in gray uniforms, Cartoonish style and as sons of the South.
I’m for compromise, take the flag off the state house grounds and fly it over a new jail where all who walk around with their belts around their knees flying their underwear as a flag will serve thirty days for each offense. Three time offenders will be locked up there for life. The facility should include forty fenced acres where inmates will grow cotton, corn etc. with mules during growing seasons. At other times logs will be hauled in so they can cut firewood with handsaws and axes. There should be chickens for them to tend, pigs to feed and butcher when they are ready, cows to milk and vegetables to grow and freeze or can. Before someone screams about how awful that is let me add that it is no worse than the way I grew up aside from the fact that I was not fenced in, little did that matter of course, I had nowhere else to go. No one ever accused my parents of mistreating me and I have never been charged with a crime in my life other than a traffic ticket.
The current location of the flag is a compromise. I say put it back up on the dome.
Mercy, please don’t tell me I needed a sarcasm tag on that post, I thought nobody could possibly miss it!
My point about this confederate flag is that it is a feel good move but does nothing to address why the shooter did this. It is a red herring to get rid of the confederate flag. Mass shootings will continue not just here but all over the world.
They do not have the confederate flag outside the US and there are mass killings. It is therefore not about the confederate flag.
This is a microcosm of where our society is today. We don’t solve problems, instead we grope around for idiotic symbolic gestures to allay people’s feelings.
I agree totally. I am amazed though to receive such a thoughtful response to a post that was as full of sarcasm as I knew how to make it.
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