Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Unexpected Good News: Southern Republicans Lead the Charge to Remove Confederate Symbols

The silver lining of the horrible massacre in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston by a white supremacist is that Republican leaders across the South are calling to remove Confederate symbols from public grounds.

In South Carolina and Mississippi this movement has focussed on taking the "rebel flag" off the capital grounds and out of the state flag.

In Tennessee the movement is to remove the bust of Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Forrest from the capitol.

Most gratifying to me, Kentucky Senator McConnell and Republican gubernatorial candidate (and McConnell opponent) Matt Bevins have come out in favor of removing the statue of Jefferson Davis from the state capitol rotunda.

Some cynics have said that this move to get rid of racist symbols is a ploy to prevent the more important matter of gun control.  This is probably true.

Nonetheless, progress is progress, and I applaud it.

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