Scott, Dixon get it wrong

The Aug. 26 Spokesman-Review photo of Idaho Rep. Heather Scott displaying the Confederate battle flag as a way to protect our freedom of speech is absurd. Her compatriot, Rep. Sage Dixon, fully supports her.

No right has been taken from individuals or organizations to fly the Confederate flag, or the Nazi flag or the hammer and sickle. That certain states ended their obeisance to a lost cause is the rub. Government flying the Confederate flag for historical and cultural pride is no more rational than flying religious or fraternity flags for the same reason.

I spent time recently with Rep. John Lewis and Amelia Boynton at the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, commemorating the first attempted civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery that almost ended in their deaths.

Scott and Dixon would be better informed and culturally kinder if they knew Boynton, whose intellect and sense of freedom far exceeded their own. Unfortunately, Boynton just died at age 104. Her lifelong fight for freedom make Scott and Dixon look like petulant kindergartners. They have no idea what a real fight for freedom looks like.

The Confederate flag was a symbol only of slavery. Scott and Dixon, fly it proudly.

Lawrence Blakey

Sandpoint