We support relegating the Confederate flag to museum displays, as long as we recognize the action is only a step toward a larger - perhaps unobtainable - goal.
In the aftermath of the massacre of nine black churchgoers by a 21-year-old white man, Dylann Roof, reactions have included comments about the continued display of the Confederate flag. Roof has been shown holding the flag in a digital image.
The shooting occurred in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, a state where the Confederate flag flies on the statehouse grounds. State officials will debate the banner's status later this summer.
Meanwhile, presidential candidates and others have weighed in on the issue of the Confederate flag. At a speaking engagement in Missouri on Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Confederate flag "a symbol of our nation's racist past that has no place in our present or our future."
The flag is only an object, but it is controversial because it may be perceived as a symbol of divisiveness, discrimination, racism and hatred.
In his reaction to the shootings, President Obama said: "What is also true is that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives - you know, that casts a long shadow. And that's still part of our DNA that's passed on. We're not cured of it."
In Jefferson City, area residents and members of Faith Voices have gathered at Quinn Chapel AME Church on Lafayette Street to pray and to move beyond bias and prejudice. In the Our Opinion forum, writers praised the love and forgiveness expressed by members of the Charleston congregation. One writer drew a distinction between the reaction in Charleston in comparison to rioting that followed the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
An argument can be made that discrimination and hatred are based on fear. Roof voiced his racial fears when he reportedly shouted to the black congregation that "you are taking over our country."
Fears and insecurities are parts of basic human behavior, but an argument also can be made that churchgoers find it easier to forgive because faith can overcome fears.
Removing the Confederate flag won't solve fear-based discrimination any more than municipal court reform in Ferguson will solve the inequities identified by a U.S. Justice Department investigation.
But steps toward unity based on mutual understanding and respect always are welcome.