An Article from Al.com - Stop blaming the Confederate flag

Matt Boster

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Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Jun 25 2015 8:25 AM

Let me say this first so there is no misunderstanding: The Confederate flag should be removed from South Carolina's state capitol grounds. It should be removed from Alabama's, too.

Whatever its origins or connections to anyone's Southern heritage, the banner has become too tied to racism and hate to ever serve as any effective history lesson for anyone. President Obama is right: it belongs in a museum.

But let's get something else straight, too. The Confederate flag, for all its hateful imagery and associations, didn't murder nine innocent people in Charleston last week. An evil 21-year old did.

Whatever his ties or supposed allegiance to The Lost Cause, it took a mind that was warped by much more than a flag to walk into a prayer meeting at a historically black church and gun down praying people.

The news of the Charleston shootings shocked us all. It was another example of senseless violence in a world that has seen far too much of it. The feeling was very much like that following the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza targeted school children in his murderous rampage. Following those deaths, the nations' attention turned – albeit briefly – to discussions of mental illness and the proliferation of firearms.

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