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SANDY — As controversy billows over the flying of the Confederate battle flag at the State building in South Carolina, other parts of the country are jumping on a side of the debate, including one flag salesman in Utah.
Paul Swenson, owner of Colonial Flag in Sandy, has removed the Confederate flag from his website and has taken the flag off of his showroom floor.
“This flag with its sentiment and anger and also the pain that they're going through particularly with the AME church in Charleston, it's the least we can do,” Swenson said.
Swenson has joined a number of major nationwide retailers who have also removed the flag from stores and websites including Wal-Mart, Sears, Ebay and Amazon.com.
“We need to remove barriers to hatred and our part right now is to slow it down to make sure we're not escalating it here,” Swenson said. Although he admits the rebel flag isn’t overwhelmingly popular in his store, “We’ve only sold about 11 in the last year,” Swenson said, he is considering permanently removing the historic flag from his business.
“The flag has the meaning we give it,” John Hartvigsen, flag historian and president of the American Vexillological Association said. “To one individual it will mean those who suffered and sacrificed and died during the civil war. To others it’s a flag of Jim Crow and segregation."
We need to remove barriers to hatred and our part right now is to slow it down to make sure we're not escalating it here.
–Paul Swenson
Lawmakers in South Carolina are grappling over the removal of the Confederate flag from the State building in Columbia. On Tuesday, it was reported an overwhelming majority has voted in favor to take it down, a final decision has not been made.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has called to remove the controversial emblem from vanity license plates in the state. In Mississippi, there are talks about changing the state flag, the current state flag includes the Confederate symbol in the top left corner.
