Governor Robert Bentley (R) ordered the removal of the racist Confederate flag from the
State Capitol's grounds today.
Two workers came out of the Capitol building about 8:20 a.m. and with no fanfare quickly and quietly took the flag down. They declined to answer questions.
Moments later Gov. Bentley emerged from the Capitol on his way to an appearance in Hackleburg. Asked if he had ordered the flag taken down, the governor said, "Yes I did."
Alabama doesn't have a law about that flag disallowing the governor from making that executive decision.
Asked his reasons for taking it down and if it included what happened in Charleston last week, the governor said, "Yes, partially this is about that. This is the right thing to do. We are facing some major issues in this state regarding the budget and other matters that we need to deal with. This had the potential to become a major distraction as we go forward. I have taxes to raise, we have work to do. And it was my decision that the flag needed to come down."
I'm going to make my own executive decision here and say that this is 100% "about that." Otherwise, doing "the right thing" would have already happened...like 150 years ago. Don't forget, Alabama has all of the Confederate flags—all three of them.
They are the First National Confederate Flag, commonly preferred to as the "Stars and Bars;" the second flag is the Second National Confederate Flag, more commonly known as the "Stainless Banner;" and the last flag standing is the Third National Confederate Flag.
About 90 minutes after the battle flag was removed, about a half dozen workers removed those remaining flags. The workers did not answer questions.
Now that the "right thing" got done in Alabama, Governor Bentley can go back to
being racist towards recent immigrants now!