I am flabbergasted that we suddenly seem to have consensus in this country that the Confederate flag is not an acceptable thing to fly on public buildings. Even Republican leaders seem to be scrambling over each other to denounce the flag. This seems like a silver lining in the horror of Charleston.
Now I wonder if we can make use of this moment to undo a festering wrong in Virginia: We have, of course, an abundance of Confederate monuments, celebrations of white supremacy right in the middle of most of our most prominent public squares.
In recent years, in Charlottesville for example, there have been very bitter debates about these monuments. City Councillor Kristin Szakos suffered a tidal wave of abuse, harassing phone calls and online hate a couple of years back when she just asked in a public forum if it might be time for the giant Robert E. Lee statue to go.