THE ISSUE: Confederate flag

OUR OPINION: S.C. does not need new battle over Confederate flag

Here we go again - regrettably.

The national NAACP has announced it will renew efforts to remove the Confederate battle flag from the S.C. Statehouse grounds.

Dennis Courtland Hayes, interim president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at the civil rights group’s national convention that the NAACP is planning a campaign against the flag and urged members to stay tuned for details.

The NAACP criticizes the presence of the flag as a symbol of slavery and racism -- and the organization has a long-standing boycott of South Carolina for its refusal to remove the banner at the Statehouse.

Seemingly ignored by the NAACP and others is the compromise in 2000 that removed the flag from an official place on the Statehouse dome. A lone banner flies today in front of the Statehouse near the Confederate memorial statue.

Lawmakers black and white know the flag is an issue about which South Carolina should not be battling at this juncture. Leaders such as Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell are serious Confederate historians who believe moving the flag in 2000 ended controversy over the banner. They will not agree to remove the flag from the grounds, period.

Gov. Mark Sanford wisely announced he would not be part of any effort to move or remove the flag. He acknowledged the political capital it would take to do battle over the banner, saying he will concentrate instead on issues that most impact South Carolinians. Thank you.

Hayes knows the score. He told The Associated Press: “I know they don’t want to get into it, but we’re going to get into it. That flag is not going to continue to fly in the face of our children. That flag is something that is very disrespectful to black people, and it’s unfortunate that the governor does not appreciate that and unfortunate that he doesn’t appreciate that feeling among a large part of his constituency, black and white citizens of South Carolina.”

The NAACP is saying it will put more teeth into its efforts to punish South Carolina, concentrating on the film industry and getting makers to boycott the state even as South Carolina is working diligently to recruit movie makers to the state. That’s not good news.

Joining the battle could be the Sons of Confederate Veterans — and it won’t be on the side of the NAACP.

Although the state SCV leader said later that member Don Gordon was speaking for himself, Gordon said the organization will raise the Confederate flag across South Carolina in response to the NAACP efforts. Gordon told The AP that each time the NAACP complains, a new flag will go up.

Gordon said the SCV is negotiating with a landowner to put a large flag atop a pole along a Midlands interstate highway. He hopes to add other large flagpoles to interstates across the state so drivers will “know they’re in the South.”

Come on folks. South Carolina does not need a new round of high-profile battles over the Confederate flag. In these difficult times, the state has so many priorities for improving the lives of its citizens. Feuding over the symbolism of the Confederate flag is not one of them. The NAACP, too, has so many issues more directly pertinent to the lives of African-Americans. And the Sons of Confederate Veterans has long argued that it is not a political organization, but rather one that emphasizes history. Confederate flags on interstate highways are not needed for people to know they are in the South nor as a weapon to battle the NAACP.

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