Dear Editor:
The Boone County commissioners during an interview on Channel 8 news on July 16 voted unanimously to move a Confederate memorial which stood since 1935 on the grounds of the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia to a private property south of Centralia at taxpayers' expense because a lone African-American male was offended and threatened to file a petition to remove the memorial.
The commissioners are morally obtuse by not taking care of our state's rich cultural heritage and the remembrance of fallen Civil War ancestors and willing to put the Confederate memorial in the middle of someone's cow field in the name of the hypocrisy of political correctness.
What causes my hackles to stand up is that a memorial for Michael Brown designed to keep remembrance of his shooting death by a white police officer Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson was put in a public park. Both St. Louis grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to indict and cleared police officer Darren Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting.
Dick Gephardt, the 2014 presidential candidate, requested that the Confederate flag should not be flown anywhere because it is a divisive symbol. Democratic Gov. Bob Holden's administration in January 2003 ordered it to come down from the Higginsville site and the Fort Davidson State Historic site in Pilot Knob.
Republican Gov. Matt Blunt on June 5, 2003, ordered a one-day flying of the Confederate flag at the annual ceremony at Confederate Memorial State Historic site in Higginsville to coincide with the memorial service and the laying of roses at a monument for fallen Confederate soldiers. The governor's spokesman said Blunt's decision was made in the compassionate spirit of the Civil War president.
"The farthest thing from Lincoln's mind would have been to interfere with fallen Confederate soldiers," said Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson. "His stand of malice toward none and charity toward all was right then and it's right today."
Gov. Holden's January 2003 administration order to ban the Confederate flag from state property is unconstitutional and is the violation of the First Amendment of freedom of speech and the right of the people to peaceably to assemble. Gov. Holden's decision was politically motivated to help Dick Gephardt in the 2014 presidential election to get the black vote. Nevertheless why didn't he ban the swastika?
Despite popular belief, hate groups use a variety of symbols including the American flag.
Movie title
Grade: grade here
Cast: cast here
Director: director here
Rating: rating here
Running time: minutes
Showtimes and Ticket Info