South Carolina is Taking Down that Confederate Flag – Now Let’s Talk about the Real Issue

I’ll never forget it.  I went down to South Carolina to shoot a movie — Renaissance Man, directed by Penny Marshall, with Danny DeVito, Mark Wahlberg, and Gregory Hines.  I had never spent a ton of time in the south, so I was surprised when we got to Columbia to see Confederate flags.

I couldn’t believe it!  Didn’t they realize they lost the war?

It was hard for a girl from the South Bronx to understand exactly what that flag means.  I know it causes a lot of hurt for black Americans because some rednecks have used the flag to symbolize racism.  And after spending time down there, I (now)  know it means a lot to Southerners who lost family back during the Civil War and want to remember that.

Guess what I did once I got down to South Carolina?  I asked people who lived down there about it.  That’s why these symbols exist — to make sure we keep our symbols in front of our faces.  To make sure we  never forget and always strive to be better than we were.  Better than we are.

But this is what gets me about the “bring down the Confederate flag” effort that has now been successful.  

It’s odd how a gunman walked into a South Carolina church and shot its members…  and everyone is suddenly blaming the state of South Carolina for flying this flag. Even though most of the people complaining about South Carolina’s Confederate flag are from states that do NOT have a black senator.   Tim Scott is the first African-American senator to win election in the South since Reconstruction… and that happened in South Carolina.  And when Nikki Haley just announced that her state would take down the flag, she described herself as a “minority female governor elected and re-elected” by South Carolina voters.

The real issue in this tragic shooting is the evil that exists in our hearts toward each other.

I guess it’s easier if we can dodge that and talk instead about a piece of cloth.

Gov. Haley said they’re taking down the flag, and I like it when states make their own decisions.  I respect Gov. Haley and Sen. Scott and am sensitive to all of the tremendous emotion on both sides. But I have to ask.

The flag is coming down. Now, America. What are we going to do about the real issue?

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