Virginia Isn’t For Confederate Flags

This has been a tough week for folks who reduce the history of the South and Confederate heritage to the display of the flag. Yesterday evening the Danville City Council passed a flag ordinance with a vote of 7 to 2 limiting the flying of flags on city-owned property to the national, state, city and MIA/POW flags. I believe this is what the city of Lexington did as well to bring closure to this issue.

The Department of Motor Vehicles will also begin recalling specialty license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag.

In related news, The Virginia Flaggers received some free press during last week’s CNN series, “The Hunt With John Walsh,” in an episode on the kidnapping of Lily Baumann by her mother, Megan Everett. It was disturbing to hear that during the investigation only one Flagger came forward to help investigators given the number of photographs of Lily at Flagger events. Thankfully, the little girl has been found and has been reunited with her father. Here is a photograph of Lily with Susan Hathaway and Karen Cooper of the Virginia Flaggers.

Outside Virginia the state of Georgia has removed Confederate Memorial day and Robert E. Lee’s birthday from the state calendar. And so it goes.

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7 comments… add one
  • London John Aug 8, 2015 @ 1:12

    A sadly missed opportunity in the past: I wonder if a spokeslady for the Virginia Flaggers could have been induced to appear in “Sheldon Cooper’s fun with flags” segment in “The Big Bang Theory” without realising it was a spoof? Probably too late now.

  • Brooks D. Simpson Aug 7, 2015 @ 16:07
  • Al Mackey Aug 7, 2015 @ 8:36

    And actually, no flagger came forward to help the investigators. Megan’s mother emailed all the flaggers and only one responded to her email, saying he knew Lilly. Then when asked for more information he claimed he didn’t know anything.

  • Muhammad E. Lee Aug 7, 2015 @ 8:07

    Yesterday the Flaggers erected another roadside flag (devoid of any historical context) in advance of the Danville City Council vote. At the meeting, Susan sent a high-schooler to the podium to point at the flag and threaten the Council that they would “pepper” the city with more of the same. So, they understand that their message is offensive enough that they can mobilize flags in a strictly punitive way (or at least as a threat). But they never take the next mental step to empathy; or to think “oh, would it be more considerate not to hurt people by waving this flag at them?” It is perplexing. On one hand their behavior just seems like rear guard theatrics, but it might just boil down to petulant personalities. To wit: today the Flaggers’ Facebook linked to a WTVR Channel 6 poll about the license plates with some added instructions for their followers to “Irritate the haters…vote NO.”

    • Kevin Levin Aug 7, 2015 @ 8:35

      What most people don’t understand is that the raising of these flags along Virginia highways reflects the fact that they have nothing to show for their efforts. The Virginia Flaggers have lost every major fight that they have entered:

      VMFA
      Lexington City
      Washington and Lee University
      Museum of the Confederacy – Appomattox
      Danville Museum

      I could go on.

  • Annette Jackson Aug 7, 2015 @ 5:48

    If you see Karen Cooper you know what is coming next….Seriously, there is no reason for a battleflag, or a flag of the Confederacy, flying in any official capacity on government property of any sort. There hasn’t been a CSA for 150 years. When I moved to Northern Virginia from California in the mid-1990s I don’t remember this nonsense being promoted, but when I moved to the Richmond area someone had to explain Lee-Jackson Day to me and I was gob smacked. Granted, Richmond was obviously important during the CW, but if the city and the area hopes to expand on the national stage as a major business center this just makes us look antiquated.

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