Martin O'Malley Agrees With the POTUS

[bigtree]

Martin O'Malley @GovernorOMalley
It's time that state govt officials of South Carolina retire the Confederate flag to a museum. http://omly.us/take-it-down

[Omaha Steve]

1. I don't understand why...

O'Malley is running FOURTH in the polls.

[FSogol]

3. It is too early for the polls to be accurate. O'Malley will do well in the first group of primaries

and his numbers will take off after that.

[madokie]

2. Martin is a good man

We can agree on that

[Bluenorthwest]

4. And yet the State Song of Maryland is a Confederate Battle Anthem which calls us Northerners scum

while Lincoln is called a tyrant and despot. O'Malley of course had his whole career in Maryland, and was in fact a Governor who did not take action to replace that extremely martial and traitorous song. This is what makes his calling upon SC a tad on the finger pointing side of things.

I hear the distant thunder-hum,
Maryland!
The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum,
Maryland!
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-
Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!
Maryland! My Maryland


I have to say, that's really not to my liking.

I am a big believer in cleaning your own house prior to complaining about the neighbors dirty house.

[bigtree]

5. to be fair, it's not like my state broadcasts the song over loudspeakers.

... those verses aren't sung in any official forum or part of any official display.

Moreover, there's absolutely no evidence at all that ANYONE in my state is using that song as a symbol of white supremacy or bigotry, as many do with the confederate flag.

The idea that O'Malley shouldn't speak out about the confederate flag waving at the SC statehouse is an argument conservatives are trumpeting since his call for the removal of the racist flag to try and shame O'Malley away from speaking out. I'm surprised to find an echo of that dishonest argument here on DU...well, maybe not.

[Koinos]

7. Laughable to compare a state song that nobody sings anymore

to official public display of the confederate flag.

Changing the lyrics to a song that had only "historical value" (lyrics from a poem written in 1861) was not the governor's nor the legislature's first priority.

Here is some information about one attempt to change the lyrics:

http://somd.com/news/headlines/2009/9393.shtml

According to one sponsor of the bill --

If the words to the song aren't changed, Ivey said, "People will never sing it."

And that is what happened: People never sing it. I am a resident of Maryland, and I have never heard it sung publicly. On the other hand, I am well acquainted with O'Malley's role in making Maryland one of the most progressive states in the US.

But some individuals do fly the confederate flag here (usually on their pickup trucks), just as they do in Massachusetts and other blue states.

[Augiedog]

6. To hell with a museum...

Tear it down, shred it, burn it and put the ashes in a pit toilet. It is a symbol of hate and racism. It is also a symbol of treason, murder and greed. Anyone who claims a positive heritage attachment to this obscene flapping middle finger to America is in serious denial. The vast majority of America understands what the Southern War of Treason, aka the Civil War, was about. Delusional historical revisionism cannot and never will replace what the confederacy was.