re: I really wish this thread had never got started ...

Something important is being ignored here. The flag has only been on State House grounds--either atop the Capitol or on the the grounds since 1962, ninety-seven years after the war ended.

The 1960s, as Rooster knows full well, was one of racial hatred in the South, though except for the tragedy in Orangeburg and the overturned school bus in Lamar in early 1970, South Carolina was nowhere near as violent as, say, Alabama or Mississippi.

I mentioned the Lamar incident to former Governor Bob McNair, 17 years after it happened and he still bristled and assured that he was on the verge of sending the Guard in. This was at a private lunch.

And to deny the decision by the legislature was not racial is simply wrong. It was a response to emotional demands from a large portion of our electorate. And there was a certain about of jingoism.

And I think SCRooster is the best and most knowledgeable poster anywhere. Much better than most of the paid ones.

But facts, my fellow Gamecocks, are facts. The flag needs to rest in a museum. It is no longer truly relevant for many of us. Cotton is no longer king, and most of what we have is picked by huge machines.

Placing the flag in a museum is simply the right thing to do.

And I would like to add that I am Southern to the core. My great-grandfather next year will have spent 150 years in an unmarked grave in Petersburg, Virginia, the victim of a yankee sniper.