Recently, there was somewhat of a scandal on campus with the incident regarding use of the Confederate flag. There has been a lot of controversy over whether or not faculty (including Chancellor Joe Gow) responded properly to the race issues on campus.

The way I see it, yes, the Chancellor may have been able to address the issue earlier than he did, but we have to remember that he most likely wanted to make sure not to offend anyone with his response as well as make sure he had all of the details of the situation. To err is human, and I think those of us who are expecting a reaction from any of the faculty extremely quickly that complete free of offense to anyone is absurd. We should appreciate that the Chancellor took the time he needed in order to address the situation in its entirety rather than quickly and sloppily in order to appease everyone’s sense of timeliness.

We also should remember that to deny the worker his Confederate flag is to deny his freedom of speech. This is a violation of the First Amendment. It may be that the flag makes some uncomfortable, but we have to come from a place of understanding in that the Confederate flag is a considerable artifact in some people’s culture and heritage. Yes, it is true that the South has a reputation and history of racial violence, but the Confederate flag does not represent hate to many people. To the majority, the flag represents a long tradition of family and heritage, and those who wave it only wish to address their Southern roots.

That is not to say that there are not racial issues on campus, or that the faculty on campus do not care about said issues. The faculty on this campus is obviously very involved in this particular issue, and they would not be if they did not care. This issue would not have blown up as much as it did if the faculty were indifferent to the racial issues we are faced with.

The bottom line is, we all come from different backgrounds and histories, and we should try our best to be as respectful as we can towards those cultures we do not come from or necessarily understand.