South Carolina may - may? - take down Confederate flag?

One hundred and fifty years after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, the South Carolina Legislature on Tuesday will consider -- consider -- whether it's time to take down the Confederate flag that flies on the grounds of the state capitol.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday called for flag to be removed, saying it is for many "a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past." .

"It's time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds," Haley said.

"For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble. Traditions of history, of heritage, and of ancestry. At the same time, for many others in South Carolina, the flag is a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past."

And so on Tuesday, the Legislature will consider -- consider -- removing the symbol that is to African Americans what the swastika is to Jews.

A powerful symbol of that which sadly still exists in this country. We saw it last week, in the massacre of nine good men and women who welcomed a stranger into their midst and paid for it with their lives.

We saw it in March as a white University of Oklahoma fraternity sang a racist chant, one that was picked up by white students at Duke University, where later a noose appeared on campus.

We saw in April in a North Charleston park where an unarmed black man was shot eight times as he ran away from a white police officer and we saw it just a few weeks ago, at a Texas pool party.

Day after week after month after year, we see it. Day after week after month after year, African Americans endure it.

Dylann Roof thought it was time to begin a race war in this country? I'm guessing many African Americans are wondering when we will see an end to the Civil War in this country.

It's a fine thing that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has finally come to realize that it's time to take down the Confederate flag that flies smack in the face of a good portion of her constituents.

A finer thing would be for America to admit that 150 years after the Civil War ended, racism is alive and well and it is all around us and maybe even within us. Yet last week, a fair number of leading lights in this country refused to see the massacre at Emanuel AME Church for what it was. Refused to call this evil what it was: a blatant racist attack, nine good men and women murdered because of the color of their skin.

It's a wonderful thing that the sovereign state of South Carolina may finally remove the outward symbol of a barbaric time that should be dead and gone,

But until things change that we can't and don't want to see – the things that fester and boil in far too many hearts – nothing will change.