
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240486
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CENSORSHIP AT A COUNTY COURTHOUSE

ON JUNE 12, General District Judge John Scott requested the removal of a flag display in the law library of the Stafford County Courthouse. His request was forwarded to the county's clerk of courts, who promptly complied. The display, featuring ten flags of sovereignty, illustrated the history and evolution of Stafford County since 1664. It included the three national flags of the Confederate states, along with British and early American flags. Absent was the familiar Confederate battle flag - it was never a national flag and would not have been appropriate for this particular display. The three national flags of the Confederacy that were included are sufficiently obscure to generate only a look of puzzlement from most Virginians. Very few people recognize these flags, and that is a pretty good reason to include them in a historical educational display.

Following Judge Scott's frenzied historical cleansing, the only flags left in the library display are the United States' flag and Virginia's state flag. This is most ironic since our current state banner is the most Confederate of standards. It was first officially adopted by Virginia's Secession Convention in 1861 and has remained unchanged since then. Along with the battle flag, the Virginia state flag was carried by Virginia troops throughout the Civil War. Additionally, my beloved Stars and Stripes flew over the slave trade for 78 years before the birth of the Confederacy. Then it was carried by an invading army in a brutal war of conquest against the Southern people. I love this flag dearly, but it is as stained with blood and past sins as any other. If Judge Scott is going to remove any flag because it might be offensive, he must remove all of them, and then strike the colors from the courthouse's flagpole as well.

The real problems generated by Judge Scott's flag-banning go to the issue of censorship. Although the Roanoke Times & World News has reported this story, this latest venture into censorship is a direct consequence of previous flag-banning episodes that it has championed editorially. Even though the specifics in the Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina flag controversies are different, Judge Scott's flag-banning in Stafford County is an unavoidable, direct-line consequence. How odd that the self-appointed guarantors of our First Amendment rights have helped lay the foundation for historical revisionism in Virginia.

Are Virginians willing to accept as "judicial prerogative" the capricious and improper censorship displayed by Judge Scott's flag-banning? I sincerely hope not. JOHN T. BRISCOE ROANOKE

by CNB