Current Events –
Alabama Takes Down Confederate Flag
Someone check the weather report to see if hell has indeed frozen over.  It’s highly possible now that Alabama has taken down its Confederate flags.
Current Events
In a shocking move from the state that was once the epicenter of the civil rights movement, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered all 4 Confederate flags be taken down from the state capitol.  The order comes only 2 days after South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley asked state lawmakers to remove the flag from her state’s capitol.
According to Gov. Bentley, the flags were removed because he didn’t want to distract from current legislative issues. “The flags had the potential to become a major distraction as state leaders work through the state budget and other issues,” Bentley said.  A state spokesman added that the move will be permanent.
For those who are unaware of its history, Alabama is the state where then Gov. George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door to prevent segregation of schools, proclaiming “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Alabama is the state where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the 1965 march on Selma. Alabama is also the site of the historic 16th St. Baptist Church bombing in 1963 that killed 4 little girls. Â Now, in light of the church shooting that killed 9 people in South Carolina last week, Alabama wants to break free from its racist past by removing the Confederate flag.
At exactly 8:20 am on Wednesday, workers quietly removed the flags while declining to speak to the media. Now, other southern states are reviewing their flags and the use of Confederate symbols on official state items.
In 2001, Mississippi voters elected to keep the Confederate “bars and stars” as part of their state flag. However, state lawmakers have recently renewed efforts to remove it from the flag for good. Bipartisan leaders in Tennessee are also reviewing their state flag and looking to remove a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader, which sits outside the state Senate chamber.
The bold move by Alabama to simply remove its Confederate flags without warning or discussion, seems to be giving other southern states permission to follow suit.  If this wave to finally rid states of Confederate symbols is a success, then those 9 brave souls who were killed inside that church in Charleston, SC will not have died in vain.
This is significant for me and my family because Alabama is where my maternal grandfather was born and raised. My mother was also born in Alabama. However, my grandfather migrated to the Northeast in 1948 or 49, with his young daughter (my mom) in tow. And though he eventually settled his famliy in South Central PA. the truth is until the day he *took his flight* from this world my *Granddaddy* was a true Southerner, through and through. And I still have lots of family members living in Alabama and in several other states throughout the South. But I digress.. Look. Certainly no one with a lick of sense believes that taking down the confederate battle flag will suddenly resolve over 300 yrs of *Race* issues in America; those issues being deeply rooted in the fabric of Our society. Let's face it – there are always going to be people… Read more »