FLORIDA: Senate Could Drop Confederate Flag From Seal
State senators are scheduled next week to begin considering whether to keep the Confederate flag on the Senate’s official seal, another sign of a growing national tide against icons of the South’s rebellion in the 1860s.
The existing seal of the Florida state senate. A committee is reviewing whether the Confederate flag should be removed.
The Senate Rules Committee will meet Oct. 8 to begin re-examining the current emblem of the chamber. Under Senate rules, the seal includes “a fan of the five flags which have flown over Florida” — those of the United States, Confederate States of America, France, Great Britain and Spain.
But there has been a growing backlash against Confederate symbols since June, when a man with white supremacist views opened fire at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people. Since then, Southern states including Florida have wrestled with how to reconcile past commemorations of “the lost cause” with shifting feelings about race and the meaning of the Civil War.
While many Southerners view displays of the Confederate banner as recognition of their ancestors’ military service and sacrifice, African-Americans and others see flying the flag as an endorsement of the brutal, slave-driven economy that was a central issue in the war.
Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, requested in June that the committee consider whether the seal should be changed. In a memo, Gardiner did not specifically point to the Confederate flag, but wrote about how views on symbols can transform over time.
“The current Senate seal and coat of arms were first adopted in rule in 1973,” Gardiner wrote. “Florida has certainly changed a great deal since the early seventies. Just as our state seal has been revised over time, I believe a periodic review of our legislative insignia would be beneficial.”
In a separate letter to Rules Chairman David Simmons, Joyner called explicitly for “the removal of the Confederate flag from the official Senate seal.”
Gardiner asked Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, to have a recommendation ready when the next regular legislative session begins in January. Any change to the Senate seal would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Other legislative efforts dealing with the flag are also underway. A pair of bills (SB 154 and HB 243) — sponsored by Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, and Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg — would seek to ban government buildings or properties from displaying any flag used by the Confederacy during its 1860 to 1865 rebellion.
Legislative leaders have not yet scheduled either bill for a committee hearing.
Lawmakers could also consider legislation to replace a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, whose likeness is one of two sculptures that represent the state in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.
And the argument about how to commemorate Confederate military service has continued elsewhere. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has pushed unsuccessfully to get soldiers who fought against the Union admitted to the Florida Veterans’ Hall of Fame.
–wusf.com
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SOUTH CAROLINA: Governor Calls Rain 1,000-Year Event
CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley didn’t mince any words Sunday about just how dangerous a situation the weather — which was blamed for five deaths in the state by Sunday night — had become in her state.
“We are at a 1,000-year level of rain,” Haley said at an afternoon news conference. “That’s how big this is.”
It wasn’t hyperbole.
David Linnen takes a yard rake to clear drains in front of the Winyah Apartments.
Since weather records don’t go back far enough to know if it’s rained this much in South Carolina in a 1,000 years, a “thousand-year rainfall” means that the amount of rainfall in South Carolina has a 1-in-1,000 chance of happening in any given year, meteorologist Taylor Ward said.
Certain areas of South Carolina had never before been deluged with such eye-popping rainfall tallies: more than 24 inches in Mount Pleasant, nearly 20 inches in areas around Charleston and more than 18 inches in the Gills Creek area of Columbia, according to Ward.
Steven Pfaff of the National Weather Service said the “phenomenal amount of rainfall” was “a very dangerous situation.”
“Flash flood warnings have been issued and many areas that received a large amount of rainfall 24 hours ago are being hit hard again,” said Plaff. “This is an extremely dangerous situation in those areas.”
Haley: keep off the roads
But the torrential rain was more than just dangerous. It was deadly.
The weather is being blamed for five deaths along South Carolina roadways, according to Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
Three of those deaths were reported by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, and two by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, according to Becker.
The weather service issued a public service announcement video reminding people not to drive through rushing waters, no matter how shallow the water appears to be. “Do not attempt to drive into flooded roadways … it takes just 12 inches of flowing water to carry off a small car. Turn around, don’t drown,” it said.
“Regardless of where you are in the state, stay home,” implored the governor. “Stay off the roadways.”
But many didn’t heed their call.
Becker said that 315 vehicle collisions occurred in one 12-hour period on Sunday, and Haley said that more than 750 motorists called for assistance during that same stretch.
Perhaps that is why Haley went beyond simply urging South Carolinians to stay off the roads in some areas. In Columbia, for example — a city that had the rainiest day in its history Sunday according to the National Weather Service — Haley made sure of it by closing all interstates in and around the capital city.
“This is an incident we’ve never dealt with before,” she said.
National Guard deployed
Haley announced Sunday that in addition to the eight swift water rescue teams and 11 aircraft, 600 National Guardsmen had been deployed to assist in rescues and evacuations, and that hundreds more were on standby.
The day before, President Barack Obama signed a statewide emergency declaration retroactive to Thursday, authorizing federal aid in anticipation of more rain.
Haley also said several fellow states, including North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida had lent resources as well.
Not over yet
The weather service forecast “catastrophic flash flooding” overnight into Monday in Berkeley County in South Carolina, where more than 18 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours.
“It’s not over,” warned Haley. “We are in the middle of it…we have another 24 hours of this.”
Northeast on deck
The wet misery isn’t just limited to South Carolina; as of Sunday evening, both Carolinas, New Jersey and Virginia were under states of emergency, and the weather service has issued flood watches stretching from Georgia to Delaware.
But Hurricane Joaquin, downgraded to Category 3 strength earlier in the day Sunday and only expected to continue to weaken, isn’t necessarily the culprit — it’s coming from two sources.
The low pressure area associated with the rain soaking the Carolinas is funneling heavy tropical moisture into the region, creating the torrential rainfall.
The moisture the storm is pulling in is also associated with Hurricane Joaquin, but the two systems shouldn’t be confused.
Joaquin inched northward in the Atlantic on Sunday, but luckily away from U.S. shores. However, the storm is expected to push in a storm surge in the Northeast as it passes, resulting in a one-two water punch.
“Life-threatening rip currents, high surf and coastal flooding, mainly at high tides, will stretch nearly the entire eastern U.S. coast,” meteorologist Michael Guy said.
–kdvr.com
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LOUISIANA: ACLU Angered By ‘God Bless You’
He’s wondering when saying “God bless you” became offensive, and he’s not backing down.
A Louisiana high school principal is under fire by the American Civil Liberties Union for saying “God bless you” in a message posted on the school’s website.
The Louisiana chapter of the ACLU accused Airline High School Principal Jason Rowland of “religious proselytization” in an open letter to school officials because he wrote “The Future Starts Today – May God Bless You All.”
But Rowland isn’t budging and the message the ACLU complained about in its letter, sent weeks ago to the superintendent of Bossier Parish Schools, hasn’t been removed.
“The United States Constitution requires public schools to ensure that state-supported activity is not used for religious indoctrination,” Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Marjorie Esman wrote to the school.
“This unlawful religious coercion is improper from any school employee, but it is particularly egregious coming from the school principal whose job is to teach and uphold, rather than violate, the legal rights of all.”
Also at issue are plans to place prayer request boxes around campus by the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, Rowland said the ACLU letter was “a shock to us” because he’d heard no student or parental complaints.
“If it gets to that point and you’re not even allowed to sneeze within a school system to say ‘God bless you,’ where’s our culture? Where are we going if that’s going to be offensive to someone?” he said.
Rowland noted that many presidents will close an address with “God bless you” or “May God bless America.”
Co-host Anna Kooiman called saying “God bless you” a part of Southern culture, right up there with sipping bourbon and eating fried chicken.
“If this is now going to be offensive, what’s next?” she asked.
Rowland agreed, after adding watching SEC football to the list of Southern traditions, and noted “it’s bigger than just that.”
“And so our community and our school system decided this is where it stops,” he said.
–bizpacreview.com
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