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From: AP
Date: 6/2/2003
Time: 8:40:09 AM
Remote Name: 66.6.112.75
Confederate flag flies again at historic site
HIGGINSVILLE, Mo. - Confederate battle flags flew again Sunday over graves of about 700 Southern soldiers and wives at a historic site where the flag was ordered yanked down in January.
The battle flag is still absent from the main pole at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site, under orders from the Department of Natural Resources.
But volunteers -- with the department's approval -- placed smaller flags on all of the graves May 24.
A park administrator said the smaller flags flew without complaint or incident through Sunday's observation of Confederate Memorial Day.
"What does that tell you? Anyone coming to a Confederate memorial site would expect to see a Confederate flag, and it is being flown in tribute to brave soldiers and in its proper context," said Gene Dressel, commander of the Missouri Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans.
"It should fly year-round, and it will fly again someday when we make some changes in the leadership of this state and get away from political correctness," Dressel added.
The main flags at Higginsville and at a state-run Civil War site at Pilot Knob were taken down Jan. 14 on orders from Department of Natural Resources Director Steve Mahfood.
Mahfood had gotten a call from Mary Still, spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. Still had seen an Associated Press story about Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt of St. Louis -- Holden's former boss -- declaring in South Carolina that the Confederate battle flag shouldn't fly "anytime, anywhere."
The Department of Natural Resources told The Associated Press that neither Gephardt nor any other public official had ever complained about the flags on display at its historic sites in the congressman's home state. Gephardt's campaign said he wasn't aware of the Missouri displays but thought they should come down, too.
That's when Still called Mahfood, and the Higginsville flag was put away in a drawer -- and later a glass display case. Holden said after the fact that he supported pulling down the flags and that he agreed with Gephardt that the flag was a symbol of racial division.
Others disagree, saying there is no more appropriate place to fly it than over the graves of Confederate veterans. These critics of the flag removal say it was done purely for political reasons.
Speaker after speaker at Sunday's service at Higginsville noted the absence of the Confederate battle flag from its customary place on a pole beneath the U.S. and Missouri flags.
"Our Confederate battle flag is missing this year," speaker Jan Toms said. "The removal of this flag is truly what could be deemed as divisive."
Dressel told about 250 visitors -- many wearing Civil War-era uniforms, frock coats and black mourning dresses and veils -- that the flags came down because "political correctness descended on the state of Missouri."