[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11330-11331]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today is a proud day in the State of South 
Carolina and should be a proud day throughout the South in the United 
States of America, for the South Carolina legislature, under the 
direction of their Governor, took down the Confederate flag that flew 
on their capitol.
  It should be a proud day for all, for the South is much more than the 
flag,

[[Page 11331]]

and the South has much to be proud of. But the flag symbolizes things 
that are not something the South should not be proud of.
  Patterson Hood, a member of a band called Drive-by Truckers, wrote a 
song called The Southern Thing and has a commentary in The New York 
Times Magazine this week, expressing why he hates hatred and sees the 
flag as divisive and why it should come down.
  It was the right thing to do. And the Mississippi State flag should 
come down, which has the rebel flag as part of its insignia and is in 
the halls of the Congress. That flag, as has been asked by 
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Leader Pelosi, should 
also come down.
  Signs of treason, signs of hate, signs of racism have no place in the 
United States of America's halls of Congress and should come down.

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