I thought that I would take this opportunity to weigh in on the flag issue and then move on. I’ll only pen this one column on the matter, and then lead by example and let it go for the time being.

First, allow me to say that I have great respect for the men—from both sides—who fought in the War Between the States. Father versus son. Brother versus brother. Cousin versus cousin. American versus American. The fact that Americans killed each other on American soil for four years makes this war difficult to contemplate even today.

While I certainly do not approve of either the manner in which the Georgia flag was change or its new design, the matter is not a defining issue for me like it is for a small group of Georgians. These people eat, breathe, and sleep the Confederate Battle Flag and never miss an opportunity to rub someone’s face in it. In some circumstances, these people have been downright destructive—from hijacking local Republican parties to making it a litmus test for elected officials. Many of them have denounced Northerners that have relocated to Georgia (bringing their money and commerce with them), and have invited them to leave the state and to take the “Barnes Rag” with them. This obscures the fact that without these “damn Yankees,” the Bubbacrats would still be running our fair state into the ground.

I predict that the biggest obstacle that the flag crowd will face will be…themselves. The flag pushers range anywhere from moderate to downright racist and Neanderthal-like. And the media and opponents of another flag change will use the bigoted Neanderthal as “window dressing” (i.e., spokesperson for the group). It isn’t enough that the flaggers shrug at racist fringe groups like the Klan and say “we can’t help it if the Klan uses the CBF that way.” They must actively engage in a campaign of denunciation, disassociation, and vocal condemnation of racist and neo-Confederate groups (such as League of the South)—which they simply haven’t done yet.

The flaggers gone around not trying to win potential allies for their cause, but alienating them. Case in point: a group of flaggers invited state Representative Alisha Thomas (who is an African-American) to one of their speaking events. Instead of presenting their case in a rational, sentimental way, they ended up deriding and bashing the NAACP. That’s a great way to win friends in the African-American community. I just thank the stars that these people weren’t representing the Republican Party, which should distance itself from this sort of fanaticism.