Thursday letters: Remove Confederate flag from State House to aid race relations

In his fine column of May 5, Warren Bolton noted that South Carolina has come a long way in race relations, but there’s more to be done.

There’s one action we could take that won’t cost us a dime but, in fact, will pay us dividends in many ways: Lower the Confederate flag in front of our State House. It could improve race relations overnight by saying to 30 percent of our population that your lives matter today as free citizens and taxpayers.

It would stop the financial bleeding caused by the NAACP boycott.

And it would set an example for the entire country that we stand in unity against the many external threats our country faces, regardless of how you feel about current internal politics and politicians. They change every two or four or six years because we are a democracy that is worth preserving by every voter and with every vote.

As Mr. Bolton said, we just need the will to finally do the right thing.

Spartanburg