Just this morning, the South Carolina Senate voted overwhelmingly to take down the Confederate Battle Flag that had been flying on the grounds of the State House for more than fifty years.

Two days earlier, Rep. Peggy Bennett empathized with a volunteer fire fighter who flew that same flag from the back of a Hartland Fire Department truck, saying “I see the argument the fire official was trying to make” and that “part of freedom is the freedom to be offended, and we have to understand that as a society.”

The freedom to be offended does exist in this country, and freedom of expression is one of the most crucial aspects of American life, but Rep. Bennett should understand why so many are taking this issue so seriously.  What that flag actually stands for, as opposed to the current smokescreens of heritage and anti-political correctness, was articulated very early in the rebellion by no less than the Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Hamilton Stephens; “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition.”

If the first state to secede from the Union more than 150 years ago can agree that public displays of such potent symbols is a bad idea, why can’t Peggy Bennett?