Beaufort News

Rants & Raves: Readers react to Confederate flag swap on graves at St. Helena church

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Readers react to the decision to replace the Confederate battle flags with the first national Confederate flags on soldiers' graves at the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort:

What's the difference between the two flags? They still represent the CSA. One being the first national flag of the Confederacy and one being the battle flag. So I ask again ... what's the difference? What's next? Removing the British flags in the graveyard, because at the time, the British flags stood for tyranny?! Amanda Thompson Hughes

This is going way too far; removing the flag won't fix anything. There has always been racism and there always will be. Ever since the beginning of time, racism has existed.

Chris Schoener

People can make a flag that is green with a check mark on it or a jellyfish and say, "This represents us hating black people" or represents whatever -- could be honor, could be money. I'm just saying, it's all about representation of how one views the flag. If a majority views the Confederate flag as a racist (symbol), then us being the UNITED States of America should honor that, respect that, and disregard the point of placing a flag representing division and hate on top of a political building. Are we really UNITED or is it just another clichè? Ori Afolabi

You really want to get at the racist, everyone should adopt this flag as their own. Everyone should have bumper stickers on their cars and fly the flag at their house. Once the stigma is gone, the racists will go find something else to fly. The only reason they use it is because the uneducated become so upset by it. Take that away and they have nothing. Kevin Schumacher

So stupid. I bet the soldiers would be rolling over in their graves if they knew. They fought and died under that flag. For all we know the flag could have been the only motivation left for some of them. Who knows. Our country is regressing. Not progressing. Lauren Stewart

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This story was originally published June 28, 2015 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Rants & Raves: Readers react to Confederate flag swap on graves at St. Helena church."

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