Once again our nation seems bent on diverting attention away from its problems to focus on lesser, slightly related issues. A week after a hateful young man killed a number of people inside of a church, the public debate has turned to one about the Confederate Flag. In my opinion this is just another way of distracting people from the real problems in our society.
Is there a segment of the population that uses the Confederate flag as symbol of racism? Of course there is, but does the flag make somebody racist? Absolutely not! Removing a flag will do nothing to remove racism from our society. It will do nothing to solve the mental problems of hateful young people with access to guns.
As long as we continue to refuse to address the real core issues that cause violence in this country and stop focusing on band-aid side issues, nothing will ever change. It's time for us to stop allowing the media and politicians to steer us away from meaningful public debate and demand they engage in real discussions rather than sound bites. As of now, that seems only like wishful thinking on my part...nearly as wishful as those who believe hiding a flag will solve a deep rooted issue.
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