Everyone wins if Georgia flag goes to voters
Editor:
Both your editorial position and column are wrong. The flag issue was important - crucial, even. This election was lost by Gov. Roy Barnes because he chose to rule the state rather than run it. For all Sonny Perdues ebullient talk of victory and mandate, he didnt win; Barnes was defeated by his high-handed handling of the school and flag issues. ... If Perdue doesnt visit the flag issue, he will be a one-term governor.
Perdue needs to appoint a commission to handle a binding referendum on this issue at the next general election. This will assuage the nervousness of the flag supporters, not to mention kicking the can down the road two years enabling him to work on more substantive issues. He comes out a winner. It should be a binding vote, the winner by simple plurality; this gives cover to gutless politicians.
... I suspect the commission would offer four designs. First, there would be the present flag, which for all the world looks like a childs puked-up social studies homework. The commission could come up with another design, perhaps by a statewide contest, and offer it as an alternative. The stars and bars flag would be on the ballot, but I believe it would lose; its a good design, but just as the Buddhist swastika is forever linked to Nazism, to most people the Confederate battle flag symbolizes the Klan. My own preference is the pre-1956 version, a clean, classic design, retaining both history and heritage.
What I expect would happen is African-Americans, on marching orders from their ministers, would vote overwhelmingly for the Barnes banner, just as they did for him. ... The white vote would be split. Atlantas limousine liberals would go for the diversity flag, and the rest of Georgians for the other two options. The Confederate banner would lose, but most importantly, that would be the end of it. ... Whites understand the concept of democracy, which is why the current flag imposed by a tyranny of the minority rankles so strongly. If whites should lose a fair election, they are civilized and would accept it, and are consoled they had their shot at the ballot box denied by King Roy. Even if defeated, they come out winners.
What if the wildly improbable happens and the old Georgia flag is reinstated? The flag supporters are deliriously happy; they win! But there will still be no losers, as I can guarantee black racist organizations ... along with Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan, thwarted by the racism and ignorance of the voters (ignorance and racism defined as whenever blacks lose) will run to the courts - but not before mailing out millions of fund-raising letters.
To their joy, losing the flag fight will give them cause to whine and revel in their perpetual victimhood. Their leaders will be able to bilk their stupid constituencies to pay for Armani suits, charter jets and whores well into the next century. They win big time.
Dave Stewart
Grovetown