ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 15, 1996 TAG: 9604150058
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
EXCUSE OUR defensiveness, but we're getting a bit peeved with presumably willful misconstruing of our editorial position on the Confederate flag. (For an example of the genre, see Ron Ferguson's letter on this page.)
To repeat: If you fly a Confederate flag, that doesn't mean you're a racist. Plenty of people display the battle symbol as an expression of pride in their Southern heritage. And, yes, the Confederacy and Civil War stood for a lot of things in addition to the preservation and extension of slavery. We've never suggested otherwise.
Unfortunately, some people display the Confederate flag as a symbol of racism, or without sensitivity to how black Americans may regard it. Fortunately, that is their right and privilege - and a private matter. It's a free country. We'd be first to oppose a "ban" of any flag.
Where we do have a problem, as we've said before, is when divisive display becomes a matter of public policy - as when a state government flies the Confederate emblem as an official symbol over a state capitol that is supposed to represent all the people.
In Georgia, the battle emblem was added to the state flag during the civil-rights era as an expression of official defiance and official racism. As the governor of Georgia has argued, that's wrong - and it will be an embarrassment for America during the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Now, can we stop re-fighting the Civil War?
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB