SC Senate OKs flag removal

At a private meeting, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley urged fellow Republicans to remove the flag.

The state of South Carolina continues to face outrage over the flag after its association with 21-year old Dylan Roof- accused of killing 9 black people in a historical church.

Foes of flying the Confederate flag at the State House might be close to getting their wish. The confederation was formed in 1861 in opposition to Abraham Lincoln’s presidential platform that stood against slavery in the United States.

But while the nation keeps an eye on developments in Columbia, S.C., where a Confederate flag is likely to come down, a county in Florida is moving in the exact opposite direction. The vote was well over the two-thirds majority that will be needed Tuesday to send the bill on to the House.

Its sudden impetus stems from the murders of nine black churchgoers gunned down by a white man on June 17 during Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, about two hours drive southeast of the state capital, Columbia. He said he doesn’t want people living today to suffer the same fate of being forgotten as Confederate ancestors are now facing.

Hill said he will vote against the Senate flag bill unless the measure is amended in the House.

Then Pitts proposed Amendment 30, to replace the Confederate Flag with a granite monument adorned with a bronze casting of the First South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment Flag.

Some more plausible amendments carry multiple co-sponsors and prescribe compromises between removing the flag entirely and leaving it unchanged.

A Confederate flag that had been previously taken down was back up Tuesday in Marion County.

The unity, however, was short-lived and Republicans immediately began offering amendments to the Senate bill, which calls for getting rid of the banner for good. Bringing that flag down would take action by lawmakers in Georgia. A white gunman who police said was motivated by racial hatred is charged in the attack.

“There will be no flag and no flagpole when we are done with this debate”, Representative James E. Smith Jr. said. A sliver of far right conservatives are actually taking further steps to embrace the Confederate flag, claiming their infatuation isn’t with the racism it symbolizes, but the history of a citizenry that wouldn’t let “big government” tell them what to do. The bill now goes to the House for consideration.

Several South Carolina lawmakers are backing an assortment of oddball amendments that could complicate efforts to order the removal of the Confederate flag from Capitol grounds. A drive down Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue not only takes one past the likenesses of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and other Confederate military figures, but by the time you reach the state’s Capitol building at the end, you have also driven past a statue of Arthur Ashe, one of Richmond’s most important modern-day residents. House members who support removal of the flag say they expect a final vote on Thursday and express hope that it will come down before the week is out. The Senate also voted to provide the House with an automatic non-concur response to any changes, and for the appointment of Senate conferees who will hash out the differences between both bills in conference.