Sunday’s
editorial takes on the tried and true topic of nullification. Remember that
from your high school history textbooks?
South
Carolina has a proud tradition of obstinacy. In the federal family, we’re the
child who automatically responds to every suggestion with an emphatic “nuh-uh”
or “make me.” Ingrained over centuries, stubborn refusal has become our gut
feeling, our knee-jerk reaction. The federal government says po-tay-to and we
say po-tah-to. Of course, if the feds at any point changed course and started
saying po-tah-to, we’d immediately insist that real Americans say po-tay-to.
This
disdain for and distrust of authority has led us into confrontations of all
sizes, from bloody wars to congressmen who publicly call the president a liar
during a State of the Union address. The recent calls by state legislators for
reviving nullification only adds to this long tradition of digging in our
heels.
Thursday’s editorial weighs in on
those silly secession petitions. Fairly surreal that this is even coming up:
Seriously? 150 years after the Civil
War some people are still threatening to secede because they don’t like who the
president is? It’s a good thing that Stephen Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is hitting theaters this Friday. A
reminder of what it cost us the last time must be overdue.
If you haven’t already heard about
this new effort via email or social media, let us fill you in. A number of
online petitions sprang up after the election, asking the president to allow South Carolina to leave
the union and form its own sovereign state. By Thursday, one
petition had already gathered more than 20,000 signatures. And South Carolina is just a
small part. The movement has already attracted similar petitions from all 50
states and more than 675,000 signatures.
Thursday’s first editorial celebrates our national banner, whose day is today:
Two-hundred and twenty-five years ago today, a group of men gathered at the Philadelphia State House to discuss strategy in the ongoing war against Great Britain and to lay the groundwork for a new nation. On that Saturday in 1777, the nation’s flag was officially adopted, in between a resolution about oversight of the continental navy in the Delaware River and a resolution removing Captain John Roach, “a person of doubtful character,” from his post.
Friday’s first editorial lays out once again our support for taking the Confederate flag off Statehouse grounds:
Gov. Nikki Haley’s growing national profile may be accompanied by a growing inclination to call her out on the national stage. In Los Angeles this week for the group’s annual convention, NAACP president Benjamin Jealous challenged Haley to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, where it has flown since a 2000 compromise.
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