Changing Flag

From USA Today:

"Hundreds march for Mississippi flag change"

 

Sharon Brown, who proposed the initiative that seeks to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, said she's doing it for her mother."Mother is the reason why this is taking place; she indicated that, ‘you and your sister better stand up,’ so we’re standing up for a change," Brown said as supporters gathered  for Sunday's One Flag for All rally near the Jackson State University campus.

But more than striking the Confederate emblem, Brown said, it's about creating a flag that can unify Mississippians. "(The current flag) doesn't represent the unity that's here in Mississippi," she said. "We need one flag that represents all of the people here, not just a minority. It hurts the state economically and socially." The rally also drew some big names, including rapper David Banner, civil rights activist Myrlie Evers and South Carolina Rep. Jenny Horne. Horne helped facilitate  the removal of the flag at the South Carolina state capitol following a mass shooting at a church in Charleston this summer. Horne had been friends with Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims of the shooting. "There's a lot Mississippi can learn from what we did in South Carolina, so they don't have to have a tragedy to make them do the right thing," she said. "It's unfortunate that it took such a senseless act of violence. You shouldn't need that in Mississippi. It's really sad that it's 2015, and it took a tragedy to make us do this."

^ I have long said that Confederate symbols should be banned in the US. It started long before it became "trendy" to do so and also before I even lived in the South. There's a reason why many white Southerners want to keep the Confederate symbols and names. It makes them feel proud to know that they once ruled society while keeping down others (blacks, immigrants, Jews, etc.) Confederate symbols should have been banned throughout the country after 1865 when the South lost the Civil War the same way the Allies banned Nazi symbols after World War 2 in 1945. Both are symbols of a group of people who believe they are better than everyone else and go a step beyond just thinking something to putting their discriminatory views into violent actions. The Confederate symbol not only rallied the South during the Civil War, but was also used during Jim Crow as a symbol to keep blacks, Hispanics and Indians "in their place." It would be one thing if the Confederate symbol had merely been a rallying cry for States' rights over that of the Federal Government. That would have been a good cause, but when it was used for decades after 1865 to openly discriminate against non-white Protestants it crossed a line and moved from a political symbol into a racist symbol. That is why it should be banned from display (except in historical circumstances.) Many Southern states have realized that and removed the symbols from certain places, but Confederate names and symbols still dominate. No one would allow for the Germans to continue having Hitler Strasse or Hitler's Highway, but they see no issue with Lee's Highway or Jackson's Way. They should as there is no real distinction between the two. Both used violent and deadly means to keep minorities down. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/11/hundreds-march-mississippi-flag-change/73798542/