Governor Tate Reeves issued the following statement on signing a bill to replace the state flag.
Tonight, I am signing a law to turn a page in Mississippi—by retiring the flag that we have flown since 1894. This was a hard conversation for Mississippi, but family conversations can often be hard.
Over the last several weeks, I have repeatedly heard it said that we must have change because “the eyes of the nation” were on Mississippi. Frankly, I’m not all that concerned about the eyes of the nation.
I do care, however, about looking in the eyes of every one of my neighbors—and making sure they know that their state recognizes the equal dignity and honor they possess as a child of the South, a child of Mississippi, and yes—as a child of an Almighty God.
The eyes I care about belong to my daughters—Tyler, Emma, and Maddie. And your children and grandchildren. And the eyes of all of our fellow Mississippians.
This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled, and to move on. We are a resilient people defined by our hospitality. We are a people of great faith. Now, more than ever, we must lean on that faith, put our divisions behind us, and unite for a greater good.
I know there are people of goodwill who are not happy to see this flag change. They fear a chain reaction of events erasing our history—a history that is no doubt complicated and imperfect. I understand those concerns and am determined to protect Mississippi from that dangerous outcome.
It is fashionable in some quarters to say our ancestors were all evil. I reject that notion. I also reject the elitist worldview that these United States are anything but the greatest nation in the history of mankind. I reject the mobs tearing down statues of our history—north and south, union and confederate, founding fathers and veterans. I reject the chaos and lawlessness and I am proud it has not happened in our state.
I also understand the need to commit the 1894 flag to history, and find a banner that is a better emblem For All Mississippi. There is a difference between monuments and flags. A monument acknowledges and honors our past.
A flag is a symbol of our present, of our people, and of our future.
For those reasons, we need a new symbol.
Now I can admit that as young boy growing up in Florence, I couldn’t have understood the pain that some of our neighbors felt when they looked at our flag—a pain that made many feel unwelcome and unwanted.
Today, I hear their hurt. It sounds different that the outrage we see on cable TV in other places. It sounds like Mississippians, our friends and our neighbors, asking to be understood.
I’ve long believed the better path towards reconciliation for our state would be for the people to retire this symbol on their own at the ballot box. And I believe we would have eventually chosen that outcome—a deliberate consensus by a thoughtful people.
I am not a man who likes to change his mind. But through prison riots, Easter tornadoes, a pandemic the likes of which we haven’t seen in over 100 years, and now this flag fight, all in just a few months, I have taken to replacing sleeping with praying.
And I have prayed about this decision without ceasing.
The Lord put Proverbs 3:56 on my heart, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and HE will make your path straight.”
Our economy is on the edge of a cliff. Many lives depend on us cooperating and being careful to protect one another. I concluded our state has too much adversity to survive a bitter fight of brother against brother. We must work to defeat the virus and the recession—and NOT be focused on trying to defeat each other.
So last week, as the legislature deadlocked, the fight intensified, and I looked down the barrel of months of more division—I knew that our path forward was to end this battle now.
There are people on either side of the flag debate who may never understand the other. We as a family must show empathy. We must understand that all who want change are not attempting to erase history. And all who want the status quo are not mean-spirited or hateful.
God tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that the three great virtues are “faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I believe that all of us have to strive to reflect God’s love for us.
We are all Mississippians and we must all come together. What better way to do that than include “In God We Trust” on our new state banner. As Lt. Governor, I fought to put those words on our state seal. We were attacked, threatened, and ultimately we were sued. I know the same forces will come after us again and I know this is a stronger line to hold.
The people of Mississippi, black and white, and young and old, can be proud of a banner that puts our faith front and center. We can unite under it. We can move forward—together.
Speaker Philip Gunn, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, dozens of legislators, and a movement of Mississippians led this effort. They were preceded by generations of people who raised consciousness for decades. They deserve the recognition they have earned.
Whether you are proud of this step or angry with us over the process, I want you to know that I love you. I am praying for you.
And I know healing will not happen by a bill or by a politician or by a legislative body. It must be done neighbor to neighbor, brother to brother, and sister to sister, together as a family. Because reconciliation is something that only God can bring!
Less than six months ago, in my inaugural address, I promised my priorities would be defending our loving culture and growing our economy. I promised to be a Governor for ALL Mississippi—and I am confident today’s action promotes both objectives.
We may not always agree. But as members of the Mississippi family, we do know the bonds we all share: God’s grace. Mississippi grit. A foundation in our history, and a hope in our future.
We can move on, and with God’s help, we will!
God Bless you, Mississippi!
Several other leaders issued statements as well.
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith
Today Governor Reeves signed a law that says the new flag for the State of Mississippi shall bear the words ‘IN GOD WE TRUST.’ By boldly and publicly acknowledging our faith in God, we will continue to show the world the true heart of Mississippi as a state of proud, hardworking, loving, innovative, and God-fearing Americans.
Senator Roger Wicker
This is a historic and long-awaited day for Mississippi. I appreciate our state legislators for having the courage and conviction to make this necessary change to our state flag. As I have maintained since 2015, Mississippians deserve a banner that unites us rather than divides us. I hope the process outlined in the law will produce a new design for the state flag that can make us all proud.
50 comments:
This will not change anyone's opinion of this state. Believe just saw a Gov basically make his own life miserable during next campaign season.
Hyde-Smith is so weak.
All take note, racism is over in Mississippi - but is it really? So this begs the question, after this nudge, what's next?
Don't take my sarcasm for approval or disapproval of the flag - I'm a transplant I could not care less about the flag, but if the mob continues to call the shots, what's next?
And for all of you woke white folk, and "allies," BLM does not give a shit about you - you are a cash register, no more, no less. Nearly $500 Million of guilt payments has been extorted from individuals and corporations with the hope that BLM won't target them.
If you think that your overt support of the group, and shaming of those who aren't, garners you some modicum of wasta with them - think again, you are simply a cash register providing dark money to domestic terrorists and democrats.
So good to see them all social distancing, and wearing masks. A great example for the masses.
Lawdy, I have prayed and prayed and prayed. I, in no way, was concerned about SEC Sports and Political Correctness. Yes, I did say it should be voted on by the people, but out of state Coaches, Corporations, and my Establishment Lobbyist friends persuaded me that we could not take that chance.
What if Mississippi voted on this, and the "bad" people won? Yep, the business folks told me that if I did not submit, they would stop the wining and dining. We'd not be rich after I leave office. What could I do?
I really did not sell out, honest. I am OK with any erasure of history, as long as no one yells at me or calls me the R word.
I know Shaun King wants to tear down white Christian images, but I SWEAR this is the last drink I'll ever take, wait, that I'll never allow that......
Trust me.
Tate thankfully signed this but he is still a coward. Get your kids out of the picture. You didn't have the courage to speak up until other people did the work. Thank you Gunn for sticking with it
Who's his PR person, is this the best Photo op they could come up with? Call somebody Tate, you obviously need some diversity on your staff.
Wicker's self-serving statements are so transparent.
In 15 days there will be no state flag. If there isn't a majority vote in November in favor of the proposed flag, Mississippi will be without a state flag for another year.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
In God we trust.
All others pay cash
Do they even let Cindy touch a pen in her office? Lol
Mississippi is known as the 'Magnolia State'(state flower, state tree) so I'm all for our flag being a beautiful magnolia bloom in the middle of a sky blue background. How controversial can that be...cause, sadly, there will be a lot of disagreement over the flag's design.
I love the expressions on everyone's face.
Gunn & Hoseman have that stern look as if they whip lil' tater's ass again.
The Tater looks sick to his stomach.
The black dude directly behind Tate is laughing out loud.
“We are all Mississippians and we must all come together. What better way to do that than include “In God We Trust” on our new state banner.”
I can think of a lot of better ways than to include a statement that is intended to reflect one particular state sponsored religion. He is deliberately excluding everyone who is not a Christian and that is a growing number all the time.
For the folks in a snit about the flag change, it is not about BLM, but about recognizing and doing something positive for Mississippi, and all Mississippians, white and bIack. A flag that speaks for us all will be an improvement over a flag that a large part of the population does not feel truly represents them. I do think the governor hit the right tone, and I appreciate his comments. I hope that Mississippi can show the nation it is possible to have civil conversations about difficult subjects, find common ground that many in both the black community and the white community share. We have more in common than we often think because of events in the news that tend to distort perceptions of reality. In every day life I see black and white Mississippian interacting with curtesy, mutual respect, and kindness, not the protests, mob violence, and hatred we see in the media. Let’s focus on that and build on it. The flag is one way of doing that.
Wake up people! Your legislature just voted to take away your right to vote and you were too caught up in the supposed flag controversy to notice. This is much deeper than the question of changing the flag or not. If we let them get by with taking away our right to vote on this issue, what do you suppose they might take away next time?
"He is deliberately excluding everyone who is not a Christian and that is a growing number all the time."
Christians are the only ones who believe in God? What a dunce!
By the way, Hillman Frazier threw a little pissy fit on the news last evening because he wanted his bow-tie to be in this photo-op.
Here's my recommendation for the design for the new flag: plain white with absolutely nothing on it.
If that's Willie Simmons on the right, not sure why he's at the ceremonial signing. Well other than the fact that he's been at the PERS/SLRP trough for almost 54 years. In that regard, like the state flag, he'll go down in history.
10:11 30 June doesn’t know who “the Black dude behind Tate” is?
Sad sad day. That post proves that no matter the flag, Black people (especially men) in Mississippi will always be just that ‘Black dude’
SMDH
I applaud the Legislature’s courage to change the flag. This change will not cure every problem MS faces, but it will be a step forward. My thanks to the leadership and to the members with the courage to vote yes.
5:39 am: There is no such thing as a “right to vote” on legislative changes like this. You live in a republic not a democracy. You elect people every four years who have the “right to vote” on major changes like this. You can vote for or against them every four years — there’s your right to vote.
People like you want to vote on whether to keep the current state flag. All that would do is prolong the discord. The state flag was going to eventually be changed. The old, “Never Forgit!” crowd is slowly dying off. The timeframe was moved forward for sure by the current George Floyd unrest. However it was in the works for the 2021 session. The Legislature and the Governor were right in just going ahead and doing it without a vote by the people. That’s what we pay them to do.
The one mistake is that the legislature put the cart before the horse by not having a new flag chosen before the retirement of the current flag. It will be interesting and educational to see what flag is chosen to replace the current now retired state flag.
Please don't put "IN God We Trust" on the damn flag. It's not gonna save a single soul and it's just giving liberals something else to scream about.
Strong work Mississippi. Too bad it took this long and outside influence to do the “right thing” If my recollection is correct, it also took outside influence to get MS to move forward in the civil rights era. Compliments of our sting some self pride and heritage. *Laughs out Loud* the German government voted to take down the Nazi Flag, the citizens didn’t vote on that. We elect officials to do just that, not kick the can for the people to vote. If citizens were allowed to choose, we’d be segregated far longer than we were made to change and the flag would stand for many more years. Change is inevitable and MS unfortunately doesn’t like change (and we will continue reap the benefits from being ass last to catch up with the world).
With the flag gone, when do we start getting all of those new businesses and manufacturing plants in Mississippi?
Oh, wait, this was about football...never mind....
ALERT!!!! The cowardly racists in Mississippi are butt hurt!
You don't vote on everything the legislature passes so lets get over this. If it was hurting our state one little bit we changed it and will move on. Most people are not aware that we had 3 other flags in the past. It gives everyone a break and now you can look to the next thing to bitch about. Let's just try and get along, it's hard enough with this virus affecting everyone to kind of have a decent week. I use to tell my Pennsylvania neighbor, and he agreed, we get along pretty well down here compared to where you were from.
6:15 Do you really think anyone in the legislature or Tater himself intends this to be inclusive of other religions? Look how many time he and others quoted the Christian bible. This is a thinly veiled attempt to force their beliefs on everybody.
And then you've got the population that doesn't believe in a monotheistic deity like Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists. The latest polls say about 15% of Mississippians fall into that category.
The state flag shouldn't be deliberately designed to be exclusive, particularly along a specific protected characteristic like religion. Just make it a white magnolia on a blue background and be done with it.
If you're hurting or concerned about your heritage or the erasure of history please go out now and buy as many of the state flags or battle flags as you can carry and plant them around your house, your car, your grave etc. Just do not impose that symbol of division on other citizens and taxpayers as an official symbol. That has been the issue all along. It's about time!
I say we vote no to every flag presented, No leadership, no flag
So, the most beautiful of all state flags will be replaced by an old lady garden banner (the stennis contraption) in an attempt to appease a mob who really wants free water.
Not stopping at changing the MS flag. Hell, that's just an appetizer.
Naturally, CNN, bright and early, says "Other Confederate symbols remain on state flags." Go look. Right on time.
Our next SJW demand is...... or, "we'll burn it down." Then, having submitted to the mob, "next demand is..."
So, by 11 AM, Corporate America, the globalist loving PC oligarchy, will be directing AL, FL, AR, etc. to change their flag asap or suffer!!
AL football players going to refuse to play? AR? Ole Mullet at FL has already gone out of his way to ban a song that has nothing to do with race. He'll snap to, ASAP.
Lincoln? The Emancipator? Coming down in DC, Wisconsin, etc.
Grant? Him too! Not like he was the Union CINC to win the Civil War. He's white. Get rid of him.
Jesus? Gotta come down. The Apostles? Mary? Yep. Shaun King, BLM co founder says they are white, but Jesus was black, so they must be destroyed.
So, what time today does the ACLU file suit "on behalf of atheists" against the IGWT logo flag law? Bet it's by 10:30.
I don't agree with Racism in any degree, from or against any group. I also do not agree with How this was done, but it's done now so lets move forward.
Please Politicians... Everyone knows you buckled to the threats from outside interest. Quit trying to convince us you were planning this all along, it had nothing to do with threats, trying to gain political capital, or the ever present motivator Money. I for one am sick of hearing all the posturing and BS.
The Governor showed no leadership on the flag change- just CYA. And his statement prior to signing the bill along with his walk to the podium was awful.
Gotta love all these triggered snowflake neo-Confederates at the loss of their precious cloth legacy of Jim Crow. If it were up to them, we would have gone another generation to make the change. This is exactly why the Legislature and the Governor did what they did, and I applaud them for it.
This isn’t close to over.
Stampede of the wusses - this is how the republic is lost.
Why are people so hell bent on a flag that was established in 1894 as a show that the old guard (racist) were back in charge! If you don’t like the flag not having that rebel trash emblem on it then you can move!! Mississippi is moving forward with or without you dinosaurs.
White flag with football player kneeling with stack of $100 bills hanging out of his waist showing In God We Trust.
With the flag gone, will USM change the name of the "Dixie Darlings"?
Forward, like the word change, can mean toward or to something ultimately destructive and undesirable. As with the current movement.
When you destroy the skeletal framework that supports the body (or country), the remains collapse into a mound of oozing helplessness.
June 30 @10:11 pm, As you so eloquently put it, "That black dude behind Tate" is the esteemed Reuben Anderson, formerly of the Mississippi Supreme Court. He was Mississippi's first African American Supreme Court Justice and served our state from 1985-1991. He's now a senior partner at Phelps law firm and has a long pedigree of awards and recognitions (https://www.phelps.com/reuben-anderson#recognition). He's also an incredibly nice man.
@1:32, *yawn* does he even have a fire mixtape?
All you traitorous scumbags who still think if would have been glorious if you could have died in Pickett's Charge, please move to Idaho. You're making the rest of us sick. It is wonderful that Mississippi has finally rejoined the United States as one of the fifty (even Idaho).
Robert E. Lee lost to George Meade. George Meade! You ever hear of him? The United States of America is "OUR" country, not a country for the Hateful Few.
God Bless America. It will be a little easier for Him now that He doesn't have to explain the presence of Mississippi.
@ Frank Griffin
We came swap quotes into the middle of the night.
This quote from a letter that General Robert E. Lee had written in response to British historian Lord Acton on what awaited the peoples of the sovereign states after Appomattox. It was found in Lord Acton's papers after his death in 1919:
Quote:
While I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the General Government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only are essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it. (emphasis added)
Next!
@Whitey
You neglected to identify the cackling Ruben Anderson as the newly elected President of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History... a nine member board.
Fat chance of ever getting the 1500 pound bronze statue of Senator/Governor Theodore Bilbo returned to its rightful place in the Capitol rostrum,it having been ordered removed by then Governor William Winter.
The bronze statue was the work of world famous German sculptor Fritz Behn of Munich, Germany. It was donated to the State in 1954. How Behn came to pick Bilbo as candidate for his artistic work--Behn had done the sculptor of Albert Schwitzer--may be in the oral archives of his son Colonel Theodore Bilbo, Jr. at USM's Cook Library? There are photos in Bilbo archives at McCain Library
MSU Professor emeritus Marszalek, known by his sobriquet "The Happy Assassin," has brought to MSU Mitchell Library the papers of the tyrant Lincoln and General Grant. Looking for Sherman to join the team next.
I defer to H. L. Menchen on dissecting Grant and to Edmund Wilson on the Bipolar Sherman in his book, Patriotic Glory: Studies of American Literature during the Civil War.
Menchen on Grant:
http://www.ralphmag.org/BL/grant.html
Now we have to work on the Georgia flag !
Of course it was H. L. MencKen who dissected Grant.
Who chooses candidates for the Board of Trustees at MDAH?
Why was Rufus Ward,the Court Historian of the Mississippi Black Prairie, not a member of that board? Instead, we get a corporate banker Nancy Carpenter and the President of MSU?
Thank god for election time!
The Georgis flag changed years ago. We were the last, as usual.
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