More Lawmakers Endorsing Flag Change
2015/06/30 –
JACKSON – The number of Mississippi leaders endorsing changing the state flag is growing.
On Wednesday, both of the state’s United States senators – Thad Cochran of Oxford and Roger Wicker of Tupelo – endorsed changing the state flag to remove the controversial Confederate battle emblem as part of its design.
“As a proud citizen of Mississippi, it is my personal hope that the state government will consider changing the state flag,” Cochran said in a statement.
And Wicker said “after reflection and prayer, I now believe our state flag should be put in a museum and replaced by one that is more unifying to all Mississippians.”
“As the descendant of several brave Americans who fought for the Confederacy, I have not viewed Mississippi’s current state flag as offensive. However, it is clearer and clearer to me that many of my fellow citizens feel differently and that our state flag increasingly portrays a false impression of our state to others.”
Wicker’s position on the issue is important nationally since he is head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, meaning he will head up the effort nationally in 2016 to try to ensure Republicans maintain their majority in the U.S. Senate. The issue of the use of the Confederate flag and other Civil War symbols by Southern states is a growing national story in light of the shooting of nine black citizens last week at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a person who allegedly said he was trying to start a race war.
After the shooting, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others in the sate endorsed removing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia. After that announcement, Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, ignited the debate here by stating the Mississippi flag “needs to be removed.”
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the only Democrat in Mississippi’s congressional delegation, said he plans to put the issue of the state flag in more national spotlight by forcing a vote in the U.S. House to remove the Mississippi flag from the display of sate flags at the U.S. Capitol, according to published reports.
Newly elected U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Tupelo, did not respond Wednesday to questions on how he would vote on the Thompson proposal or his position on the state flag.
Thus far, two key politicians in the final outcome of any flag debate – Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves – said they stand behind the 2001 statewide vote in support of keeping the current flag, though, they did concede that the flag could be changed in the future.
Many others, particularly Mississippi legislators, who might be asked to vote on changing the flag, have followed the governor’s and lieutenant governor’s lead or have said they are still studying the issue.
But a significant number of other Mississippi politicians have followed Gunn’s lead. Indeed, on Tuesday, both Cochran and Wicker refused to take a stand, saying it should be decided by the state Legislature.
Thus far the only other statewide officials to endorse a change are Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and Attorney General Jim Hood of Houston.
“A lot of people voted it for it for different reasons. It does, obviously, offend about a third of our populate,” said Hood in published reports.
Hood is Mississippi’s only statewide elected Democorat.
Generally in recent years, many more Democratic politicians in Mississippi have endorsed the change than have Republicans. But Gunn’s comments are resulting in more Republicans endorsing the change.
Interestingly, both the Democrat Hood and the Republican Wicker referenced their Christian beliefs in citing the reason they support a change.
Hood said he asked himself “what would Jesus do,” while Wicker cited Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 8, saying he would give up eating meat if it is offensive “to my brother.”
Wicker said, “The lesson from this passage leads me to conclude that the flag should be removed since it causes offense to so many of my brothers and sisters, creating dissension rather than unity.”
Source: Bobby Harrison
