Confederate Battle Flag

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today is a proud day in the State of South Carolina and should be a proud day throughout the South in the United States of America, for the South Carolina legislature, under the direction of their Governor, took down the Confederate flag that flew on their capitol.

It should be a proud day for all, for the South is much more than the flag, and the South has much to be proud of. But the flag symbolizes things that are not something the South should not be proud of.

Patterson Hood, a member of a band called Drive-by Truckers, wrote a song called The Southern Thing and has a commentary in The New York Times Magazine this week, expressing why he hates hatred and sees the flag as divisive and why it should come down.

It was the right thing to do. And the Mississippi State flag should come down, which has the rebel flag as part of its insignia and is in the halls of the Congress. That flag, as has been asked by Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Leader Pelosi, should also come down.

Signs of treason, signs of hate, signs of racism have no place in the United States of America's halls of Congress and should come down.

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