The casket of slain pastor and State Senator Clementa Pinckney passing the Confederate Flag in Columbia South Carolina
Today, a real leadership moment was missed in South Carolina. It can never be regained and will forever live in infamy.
Shot and killed by a racist, Confederate flag-loving terrorist, state senator and pastor of Emanuel A.M.E. Church, Reverend Clementa Pinckney and his family were denied a moment of dignity. As a horse-drawn carriage with his casket aboard passed through the South Carolina capitol in Columbia, the Confederate battle flag still waved overhead.
In spite of all of the lip service from Gov. Nikki Haley about removing it, and in spite of it being abundantly clear that she could remove it temporarily for maintenance, she and the government of South Carolina refused to do so.
It's more than simply a moment missed but is truly an act of utter defiance.
Rep. James Clyburn, the elder statesman of South Carolina politics, requested that they take it down today before this happened, but they refused.
We will never get that moment, that opportunity, back.
Wal-Mart, eBay, Amazon, Sears, and even the State of Alabama all moved to remove their Confederate flags, but that banner still flies in South Carolina.
This is despicable.