Hey, Dixie flag: Do us all a favor and go away

Here come the yahoos again.

The S.C. Secessionist Party is calling for the Confederate flag to be displayed during the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing on April 15 on Hilton Head Island.

Yes, this is 2017.

They want people to see it as they enter Sea Pines for the 49th playing of the PGA Tour event. They are still fighting for the legacy of a flag that was removed from the Statehouse grounds in 2015 after the Emanuel 9 were slaughtered in Charleston by a racist.

The flag-whoopers descended on us years ago during one of the drives to get the flag off the capitol dome in Columbia.

They want us to believe it is a symbol of heritage.

It is not. That’s a lie as big as their ace card — the one insisting the Civil War was fought for states’ rights. Yes, it was states’ rights — for white people to own black people. Period.

The late historian Charles Joyner tells the truth in his essay, “Furling That Banner: The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina, 1961-2000.”

“The banner had flown over the capitol since the state’s segregationist government had to confront the civil rights movement,” he wrote.

He tells of the drama on the day the flag came off the dome, only to be flown on the grounds in a Confederate memorial. The drama included a “Million Rebel March” of several hundred disgruntled neo-Confederates.

And just to show that we’re not all nuts, there was this from the South Carolina Progressive Network: “Their protest featured the ‘Stepdaughters of the Confederacy,’ women costumed as steaming Southern belles playing ‘Dixie’ on kazoos and carrying placards with such slogans as ‘Working to keep South Carolina bass-ackward since 1860.’ ”

They’re still working on it. And the 1860-ites now want to come here and embarrass us.

Two of my great-great-grandfathers fought for the Confederacy. One lost his life, as did his brother. Another great-great-grandfather lost his life’s savings, and his home and business were burned by Sherman.

I honor them. But they were wrong. They lost. And, at any rate, it’s over and on Hilton Head we’re trying to turn the page.

That’s why I say: Dixie flag, go home.

Better yet: Dixie flag, go AWAY.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Hey, Dixie flag: Do us all a favor and go away."