It is well past time for removing the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina Capitol grounds. The flag is a living bloodied and heinous relic of the worst of times in the distant and contemporary history of South Carolina and the history of our country! When will enough be recognized as enough? It is time for the flag to go, for good. You have the power to make history by passing a resolution to remove the flag and to avoid becoming just another legislature who sat idly by and missed a perfect opportunity to take the reins of change towards the inevitable.
Every positive symbolism the Confederate Flag may have once held for the people of South Carolina and the American South has long been tarnished, irreparably, by the savagery of slavery, during protracted decades of cruelty and ruthlessness under the banner of this very same flag. The barbaric attack on the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and the massacre of nine African Americans, only because of the color of their skin, are but one violent reminder of that dark period of time in our history and of the need to once and for all free yourselves and your state from the grip of this antiquated and destructive symbol! Let go with this symbol of divisiveness, inequality, brutality, racism, and slavery.
You are no longer a state within a confederation of the old south; you are a state within the federated United States of America! Your flag of pride, honor, and heroism is the Stars Spangled banner, which is the flag of all Americans, regardless of their skin color, gender, national origin, sexual preference, religion, and creed. Isn't the Stars Spangled banner, under which tens of thousands of brave men and women made the ultimate sacrifice, good enough? I believe it is. But more importantly what do you believe? The time for posturing and maneuvering is long gone; it is time to act and it is time to act now. Remove the flag now.
Azzam Elayan
June 23, 2015
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