"Dear George,

Please find below a pretty typical yet restrained letter to the editor of our statewide newspaper the Clarion Ledger regarding the Mississippi state flag. Things to know for you all in Virginia. The flag was adopted in the 1890s at a constitutional convention where only one of the 150 odd delegates were not white. This flag was adopted just as Jim Crow was gaining strength and the black population of Mississippi was all but disenfranchised. The MS flag has a replica of the confederate battle flag in the top corner. There exists now a 'flag commission' making recommendations for 1) finding a new flag or keeping the current flag, 2) if the decision is made to find a new flag, the commission is to figure out what it should look like.

Some noted incidents. The MS State Fair is held each year in Jackson. At this year's fair, pro-flag groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans distributed lapel sticker with the flag and a statement in support of the flag. The Jackson City Council voted 5 - 2 to remove the state flag from the council chambers and some city buildings. The 5 vote majority contained 4 African American men and 1 white woman. The 2 vote majority contained two white males, both delegates (one may have been an alternate) to the GOP national convention. The removal of the flag caused more conservative members of the state legislature (read "white elected officials" exclusive of Governor Musgrove and some of his supporters) threatened to withold all state revenues slated for the City of Jackson.

That's a start. No doubt the issue will pick up with the election stuff
over.

Matt Dalbey

Nov. 7, 2000

Will killing flag not shame governor?

There will be a marked difference between any new design of the state flag and the current one. One will have history in every stitch, and the other will have appeasement — not compromise, appeasement

One will have a soul melded by the Mississippians who gave up their own from First Bull Run to Appomattox. The other will be a soulless, ornamental husk.

Touch our current flag and you may hear voices absent from the flag debate. The voices of Mississippians from the past, located where it is hard for me to envision a commission or our governor.

I'm speaking of a battlefield at twilight. In its stillness, listen for the voices of the wounded and dying. Can you hear their simple prayers to God? For forgiveness, mercy or salvation? Listen further and hear their pleas.

When the new design is brought out amid much pomp and hype, if you get a chance to touch it, governor, tell me what you hear, tell me how you feel. Good or ashamed?

Carter Gallagher

Richland, MS

(Matthew Dalbey, electronic mail, November 7, 2000).