Amid today's roiling debate in the U.S. House on the Confederate battle flag, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Coweta County, spoke to reporters with his thoughts on the issue.
The key audio is here, from WSB-Radio's Jamie Dupree.
Among Westmoreland's thoughts:
"There's a lot of Confederate flags. You talking about the battle flag? I think it was just -- I don't think it's a racist symbol. I think people have misused it, but I've never really given it that much thought, because in the South you kind of grow up being around it, just seeing it in different venues or whatever. But I have never thought of it as a racist flag."
Westmoreland was asked if he could see the point of Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, when he talks about the flag's racist history during the civil rights movement. Westmoreland replied: "Well, if I believe it comes from heritage, does he understand where I’m coming from?"
More Westmoreland, via New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman:
UPDATE 4:30 p.m. -- The Georgia Democratic Party is already calling on Westmoreland to apologize. From party first vice chair Nikema Williams, via press release:
"Lynn Westmoreland owes his constituents and the people of Georgia an apology. Today."
The aforementioned derogatory term towards the Obamas was "uppity."
Earlier today House leaders yanked a controversial vote that would have continued to allow people to place small Confederate battle flags at certain times on the graves of soldiers. The vote would have rolled back a unanimous voice vote that had surprised and angered many Southern Republicans.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi then forced a vote on whether to remove all state flags with the Confederate battle emblem from the U.S. Capitol -- a strike at Mississippi, the last remaining state flag to be so adorned. The move was defeated on a party-line vote.
Lewis, a major figure in the civil rights movement, spoke on the floor just now on the issue. A snippet:
"We have not yet created the beloved community where we respect the dignity and the worth of every human being. We need to bring down the flag. The scars and the stains of racism are still deeply embedded in every corner of the American society. ...
"As a nation, as a people we can do better. We can lay down this heavy burden. It is too heavy to bear. That is too heavy a burden to bear. We need not continue to plant these seeds in the minds of our people.
"When I was marching across that bridge in Selma in 1965, I saw some of the law officers, sheriffs deputies wearing on their helmet the Confederate flag.
"I don't want to go back. As a country we cannot go back. We must go forward an create a community that recognizes all of us as human beings, as citizens. For we're one people, one nation. We all live in the same house, the American house."
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