Personally, I want my state’s flag changed because it represents treason.
To me, the attempt to secede from the United States was treason. The definition of treason is an effort to harm or destroy the nation of which you are a citizen.
The problem is Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, joins former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat on this issue of not taking action by declining to take a stance on the flag. Rather than exercising leadership, Musgrove chose to put the flag to a vote, in a state in which more than two thirds of the population is white, and probably descendants of supporters of the Confederacy. The move to me ensured the vote would retain the current flag. Bryant, deferring to the vote under Musgrove refused to take leadership on the matter of our state’s flag.
In Mississippi, former Gov. William Winter was the only white state-wide leader to exert leadership on the issue in 2001, and fought hard to remove the Confederate battle symbol from the state’s flag. Despite his efforts, those who love the symbol fight to keep it on our state’s flag.
The cry of “heritage” as an excuse to retain the symbol on the state flag ignores the negative heritage it holds for a large part of the state’s population. For the African-American citizens of Mississippi, the heritage that battle flag represents is slavery, and all of the negative things that occurred even after the United States granted them freedom after the Civil War.
Keep in mind that this symbol has been the “battle flag” of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups since the end of the long and bloody war in 1865. In every resolution of secession adopted by the 11 states that tried to secede, slavery was listed as a reason for their treason.
South Carolina at long last has removed it from even the grounds of its state capitol, consigning it to a museum.
Now it is time to remove it from the Mississippi State flag and from any other government entity where it still flies.

By Will Sullivan