Glad we've finally put shootings to rest.
[b][color:#3333FF]Link..![/color][/b] July 6, 2015 After a tragic shooting at a Charleston church, the South Carolina state Senate voted to remove the Confederate flag, which some lawmakers say symbolizes the motivation behind the crime, from the statehouse grounds.
Lawmakers voted 37-3 to take down the flag, although a third reading is still needed.
Following the shooting rampage at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last month that claimed nine lives, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, along with politicians in both parties, called for the Confederate flag flying on statehouse grounds to be removed. A day later, a bill was introduced in the Legislature calling for the "permanent removal" of the flag "from its location adjacent to the Confederate soldier monument" and transfer to a museum.
The state Senate convened Monday morning to debate the bill. State Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, reflected on the state's history on the floor, saying that the flag "had more to do with what was going on in the 1960s, as opposed to the 1860s."
"It is part of our past," he said. "I think we need to leave it at that."
State Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, recognized the absence of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney Jr., his fellow senator who was one of the nine people killed in the shooting.
"We lost a brother that I thought was the conscious of the Senate," McElveen said.
State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, said Pinckney's death should not be the sole motivation behind taking the flag down.
"We should pass this bill not because of that, or because of the eight members of his congregation who were murdered, and we should not pass this bill because some national figures say so, or because we have been getting emails, or pressure one way or the other," he said.
A two-thirds majority in both chambers is required to make any changes to the status of the Confederate flag, a precedent set by the Heritage Act of 2000, which removed a different flag from the top of the state Capitol's dome. The floor speeches delivered during Monday's session echoed those of last month, when the Legislature first met to consider removal of the flag. Then, lawmakers urged their colleagues to put the bill to a vote sooner rather than later.
A survey of South Carolina's legislators conducted by The Post and Courier newspaper, the South Carolina Press Association, and the Associated Press after last month's session showed that at least 33 of 46 senators and 83 of 123 House members support the removal of the flag.
After a short recess Monday afternoon, lawmakers moved on to consider amendments, some of which included attempts to maintain the flag in some capacity. The amendment from state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, which would have allowed voters to decide the fate of the flag, was tabled. State Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, proposed an amendment that would permit the flag to be raised on Confederate Memorial Day, May 10.
"I know much of this debate has transpired with contemporary focus as I come to my amendment in my other biographical sketches, and that the historical context is not lost on us," Verdin said. His amendment was also tabled.
Bright returned with a new amendment that would switch the Confederate flag for the first national flag of the Confederate States of America. "I would like to have the battle [flag], but as I've heard in the media and I've heard in emails, that flag is what it is all about," Bright said. That amendment was also tabled.
In a recent interview on NBC's Today show, Haley admitted that taking down the flag wouldn't be "easy" or "painless." Presidential hopefuls in both parties—including Rand Paul, Hillary Clinton, and Lindsey Graham, who represents South Carolina in the Senate—have backed the flag's removal from the statehouse grounds in Columbia. Several large retailers stopped the sale of products displaying the Confederate emblem.
