Don’t let the Confederate flag be peddled (IN)
Suzette Hackney
1:22 p.m. EDT July 31, 2015
... IMS officials can’t possibly be comfortable with a vendor selling Confederate flags 30 feet from an IMS-sanctioned trackside gift shop, particularly when you’ve just implored fans not to display theirs or bring them to the event ...
But it’s easier to pass the buck, and it fell squarely in the lap of officials from American Legion Speedway Post 500. Their property runs along Georgetown Road across from the track, and the post allowed the vendor’s tent to be erected on a slice of it. They, too, say they didn’t police what was being sold and had no idea the battle flag was being peddled ... If there’s a vendor doing business on your property, you ought to know what the vendor is selling.
William Henry, assistant department adjutant of The American Legion, Department of Indiana, which oversees local posts, acknowledged that it didn’t look good for the Confederate flag to be sold on Legion property. The American Legion has no official stance on the battle flag, but the organization also doesn’t promote it. The group, which evolved from World War I veterans, now has about 2.4 million members nationally. The nonprofit lobbies for adequate funding to cover medical, disability and education benefits for veterans, and has been at the forefront of efforts to pass a constitutional amendment that would protect the United States flag from desecration.
These are men and women who fight for Old Glory, not for a flag that symbolizes a war that was waged, in part, to uphold slavery, and later used during the Civil Rights Movement to encourage the continued segregation of blacks ...
http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/suzette-hackney/2015/07/31/hackney-excuses-let-confederate-flag-peddled/30941297/
