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Letter: Flag too visible as symbol of hate

The Columbian
Published: June 28, 2015, 12:00am

Regarding the Confederate flag, because Jefferson Davis Park is on private land, can it fly any flag it wants? How about an Islamic State flag or a Nazi flag? An Islamic State flag would surely intimidate and scare people. Europe, recognizing the intimidation and symbolism of the Nazi swastika, has outlawed displaying it in public.

We do have a say because this flag is fully visible along Interstate 5.

So that brings me to the question is the flag a symbol of hatred or just a “relic to commemorate the heritage of the South,” as the Sons of Confederate Veterans say? This is an old argument that the Confederate was only fighting for “states’ rights.” Yet the flag was a cornerstone of the philosophy that black people were not equal to whites. And since, the flag has been carried proudly by the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and pretty much every white supremacist group.

Parts of the South have never stopped fighting the Civil War and to them, the civil rights movement was just another chapter of that war, with a bunch of Northerners telling them what to do. Flying the Confederate flag over a capital (or in their front yards) reflects this resentment.

This most recent tragic event is yet another chapter, though the narrative is changing as even South Carolinians are calling for the flag to come down. We in Washington must do the same. The presence of the Confederate flag, however rationalized, is a form of hate speech and should not be tolerated.

Elizabeth A. Lee

Battle Ground

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