My tax dollars shouldn't subsidize flag on public grounds

Posted
EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter was sent in response to one published Tuesday, June 22, 2015, on manninglive.com. It may be found by clicking here. The writer of that letter asked to remain anonymous, which The Manning Times granted as she was not calling anyone out by name nor was she writing defamatory statements. The writer of the following letter did not wish to remain anonymous. I pen this in response to (the letter) on manninglive.com on June 22, 2015. As you asked, I did read what you had to say. The only thing that you and I agree on is your statement that "Removal of the flag won't stop racial division." My intent is not to give you a history lesson regarding the flag being a battle flag of Northern Virginia, nor the fact that it was hoisted above the State House in the 1960s in defiance of the height of the Civil Rights movement. I need for you, and others of your ilk, to understand that flying that flag on public grounds is offensive to me and countless other South Carolina citizens whose tax dollars support this disgrace. Feel free to fly it in your yard, your pick-up truck or even between your toes, if you wish, but I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing flying a flag whose mere presence evokes so much pain and divides South Carolina from progressing. Is that really too hard for you to understand? JERRY JOHNSON Manning