South Carolina lawmakers debate the Confederate flag

UPDATE: South Carolina Senate gives final OK to Confederate flag removal

The debate in the South Carolina Senate on the future of Confederate Battle Flag was polite, but intense.

“I am not supportive of bringing down the Confederate battle flag,” said Senator Lee Bright who argued that at the very least there should be a referendum so the voters themselves could decide.

“Because I want to determine: is it about that flag or is it about these men?” he said.

“This is a book of the dead,” Bright said, holding a list of fallen Confederate soldiers. “This is a list of Confederate soldiers that fought for your state, many of you related to, both black and white.”

There are various proposals to save the flag in some form. One would raise the flag only on Confederate Memorial Day, May 10. And another is to substitute another southern flag with less baggage &#8212 the Bonnie Blue, which is a single white star on a blue background.

But members like Senator John Scott were having no part of any nostalgia for the Old South.

“At the age of eight years old, the postman wiped his feet on my pants. The postman,” Scott said.

Senator Nikki Setzler said it is finally time to move on.

“We are creating for South Carolina, a South Carolina for our children and grandchildren, that maybe we will never see,” he said.

But the most powerful voice in the debate was the silence from the empty desk of the late Senator Clementa Pinckney, draped in black.

Which seemed to say that you can respect history without wallowing in it.