Business Leaders



Sunday’s editorial urges Myrtle Beach leaders to take the initiative in removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds and moving on once and for all.

 

That more than 65 percent of Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce members say they are ready to see the Confederate flag moved off our Statehouse lawn is yet another strong voice in what seems to be an emerging consensus: that battle flag, and the alienation and enmity it creates, are simply bad for business.

More specifically, of the 267 chamber members surveyed, 45 percent want to see the controversial flag placed in a museum, and 20 percent want to see it retired altogether. On the other side of the argument, 25 percent want to see the flag left where it is, and 7 percent want to see it returned to a place of sovereignty above the Statehouse dome.

That two-thirds majority is hardly surprising, considering the very public losses of an ACC baseball tournament and Olympic beach volleyball trials attributed to the boycott by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Losing sports tourists is only one part of the equation, however; we know that many black Americans see our state's white-knuckled grip on that old symbol of segregation as reason enough not to visit, whether we have a boycott or not. And to the members of our hospitality industry - most of whom take very seriously the desire to show off the Grand Strand to visitors - intentionally causing such an affront to so many guests is wrong on its own merits.

The flag has no good historical reason to be on our Statehouse lawn. It was not hoisted at the Statehouse until the 100th anniversary of the Civil War in the 1960s gave state legislators a convenient way to thumb their noses at federal authorities imposing integration. And moving it to the Confederate soldiers' memorial does little better by way of historical accuracy; our soldiers fought under various versions of our gorgeous state flag, either in its present deep blue or in the Citadel's Big Red.

Between the Confederate sympathizers who continue wanting to honor their ancestors and anti-flag crusaders who never want to see the thing again, we beleive there is plenty of room for compromise. Still, we have to acknowledge both the wit, wisdom and political pragmatism offered by state Rep. Tracy Edge in his assessment of how the state legislature will react to the chamber survey: "Here's the problem we've got: Those businesses are probably all along the coast and probably within 5 miles of the shoreline. You can drive five hours and 250 miles before you get to the end of the state, and 245 miles of that is more than likely strong flag supporters."

Edge may be right. For that reason, it seems more important than ever for Myrtle Beach to take the lead on this issue. Earlier this spring, City Councilman Phil Render drafted a resolution calling for the flag to be "respectfully placed in an appropriate setting apart from the seat of government to allow groups, and each individual to hold whatever degree of reverence to the past and their heritage as they deem desirable."

In his hope that the resolution could find a unanimous vote, Render decided not to introduce the resolution at council, to give him more time to discuss it with whatever council members he believed were not yet in favor of it. From our conversations with council members, it would appear that such a resolution would pass - and the overwhelming results of the Myrtle Beach survey ought to reassure any council members on the fence that now is time to act.

Perhaps we cannot yet get all 250 miles of the state on board with us at once, but the five miles represented by the city of Myrtle Beach would be an excellent and influential start.

 

That two-thirds majority is hardly surprising, considering the very public losses of an ACC baseball tournament and Olympic beach volleyball trials attributed to the boycott by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Losing sports tourists is only one part of the equation, however; we know that many black Americans see our state's white-knuckled grip on that old symbol of segregation as reason enough not to visit, whether we have a boycott or not. And to the members of our hospitality industry - most of whom take very seriously the desire to show off the Grand Strand to visitors - intentionally causing such an affront to so many guests is wrong on its own merits.

The flag has no good historical reason to be on our Statehouse lawn. It was not hoisted at the Statehouse until the 100th anniversary of the Civil War in the 1960s gave state legislators a convenient way to thumb their noses at federal authorities imposing integration. And moving it to the Confederate soldiers' memorial does little better by way of historical accuracy; our soldiers fought under various versions of our gorgeous state flag, either in its present deep blue or in the Citadel's Big Red.

Between the Confederate sympathizers who continue wanting to honor their ancestors and anti-flag crusaders who never want to see the thing again, we beleive there is plenty of room for compromise. Still, we have to acknowledge both the wit, wisdom and political pragmatism offered by state Rep. Tracy Edge in his assessment of how the state legislature will react to the chamber survey: "Here's the problem we've got: Those businesses are probably all along the coast and probably within 5 miles of the shoreline. You can drive five hours and 250 miles before you get to the end of the state, and 245 miles of that is more than likely strong flag supporters."

Edge may be right. For that reason, it seems more important than ever for Myrtle Beach to take the lead on this issue. Earlier this spring, City Councilman Phil Render drafted a resolution calling for the flag to be "respectfully placed in an appropriate setting apart from the seat of government to allow groups, and each individual to hold whatever degree of reverence to the past and their heritage as they deem desirable."

In his hope that the resolution could find a unanimous vote, Render decided not to introduce the resolution at council, to give him more time to discuss it with whatever council members he believed were not yet in favor of it. From our conversations with council members, it would appear that such a resolution would pass - and the overwhelming results of the Myrtle Beach survey ought to reassure any council members on the fence that now is time to act.

Perhaps we cannot yet get all 250 miles of the state on board with us at once, but the five miles represented by the city of Myrtle Beach would be an excellent and influential start.