In the next to the last day in the Georgia state legislature the Georgia Senate voted to approve a new, temporary state flag and set things up for Georgians to vote to possibly return to the post-1956 state flag that included the Confederate Battle flag in the design. However, due to a typo in the bill sent to the senate from the house the new flag would be a foot longer than any other state flag and fixing the typo is causing the bill to go back before the house with only one day left in the legislative session to vote on it. Black Democrats in the house have promised a filibuster to block the bill from being passed.

When this started out I had just moved to Georgia and I thought a referendum would be a good way to settle this flag controversy once and for all. Under the origianl proposal I figured that we’d end up keeping the flag we currently have and reject the old "states rights" flag that Roy Barnes managed to get rid of. This isn’t turning out that way. It appears that the way the referendum is being set up, with the choices being offered and the way they are being offered, the odds are stacked in favor of the "state’s rights" flag.

With the way I’m seeing this thing play out I’m glad that the referendum may get sunk with a filibuster. If Georgia goes back to the old "state’s rights" flag we are going to lose a lot of money that could be coming into the state. Atlanta depends heavily on convention dollars and if we go backwards to that old controversial flag a lot of those dollars are just going to disappear. It isn’t worth it.

Gov. Sonny Perdue wants a non-binding referendum on whether or not to keep the current state flag, revert to the previous state flag or revert back to the pre-1956 state flag. I’ve stated before that I believe this to be a good idea. The pro-state-flag-with-the-confederate-emblem group has said over and over that it isn’t so much about the flag but the fact that we weren’t given a choice in the matter. If the current flag or the pre-1956 flag wins the referendum then the matter is fully settled and the boys in the pointy white hats are silenced.

The problem is that the leaders of the black community don’t have any faith in the white population of Georgia.

NAACP leaders urged lawmakers to block the referendum, saying they are certain the Confederate version would win.

“If it were up to the majority of people in the state of Georgia, slavery would still be legal and lynching would still be the law of the land,” said the Rev. Charles White Jr., director of NAACP’s Southeast region.

I don’t see this. Very few of the people I run into around the metro Atlanta area are Southerners. Outside of the metro area people are still very Southern and proud of it. Still among them only about half feel strongly about the state flag. It just isn’t the issue that its being made out to being.

Gov. Roy Barnes, the past govenor, blames his loss to Perdue, in part, on the flag issue and he’s correct, it did cost him votes among people that normally would have voted for him. Still if that had been the only issue and the only problem that Barnes had he would still be Govenor. People were pissed at him for more things than his pushing through the flag change.

When the referendum gets here, I’ll be voting to keep the current flag. I’ll also be voting to use the pre-1956 if the current flag is to be replaced.