Why I Didn't Sign

I don't expect to win any popularity contests with this one but, please, hear me out. We are all very upset about the racial violence taking place in this country but I think it is important not to misdirect that anger and lose focus on the bigger picture.
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I don't expect to win any popularity contests with this one but, please, hear me out. We are all very upset about the racial violence taking place in this country but I think it is important not to misdirect that anger and lose focus on the bigger picture.

I have never been a fan of the Confederate Flag... even before the horrific shooting incident. I don't believe in anything it stands for and have always had strong personal opinions about its existence but, when it came time to sign the petition to remove it, I didn't and here's why...

I believe in two very important things... I believe that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and I believe in freedom. When we start mandating that people take down flags, even Confederate Flags, it seems to me that we are getting into some very dangerous territory. Don't misunderstand me; I am not trying to protect the rights of a gun-wielding racist. I am just saying it is a slippery slope. Things moved awfully quickly to renaming streets and taking down monuments. Those monuments and the people they represent, like it or not, are a part of history. What's next?... Erasing names from the history books?

The criminal in this case wins on a much larger scale if we start letting him create this kind of anarchy. We should all keep it at the forefront of our minds that equality has been a daily struggle and remains that way for many. Taking things down and putting them in a dark closet somewhere to pretend they never happened is simply not the answer.

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