History

Charleston’s The Post and Courier reports that the South Carolina legislature on Tuesday has agreed to debate the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol. South Carolina lawmakers agree to discuss removing Confederate battle flag:

The S.C. Legislature agreed Tuesday to consider taking down the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds where it has flown as part of a Civil War memorial for the past 15 years.

The House voted 103-10 while the Senate approved by voice vote broadening the subjects that can be taken up during the current special session.

Soon after the Senate voted, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Camden, introduced a bill calling for moving the flag from Statehouse grounds to the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia. Debate on it could begin as early as next Tuesday when lawmakers are called back into session.

Across the hall, House members also filed two bills that called for the removal of the battle flag, but debate will be delayed while they go through committees.

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Did you feel the ground shake earlier this week? There was a seismic event in the Canadian province of Alberta, Canada following its elections.

Alberta is sometimes referred to as the “Texas of Canada” for its conservative politics. The Progressive Conservatives (yes it’s an oxymoron) have been in control of Alberta for 43 years — almost as long as Republicans have been in control of the Arizona legislature (48 years, since January 1967). The liberal party, the New Democrats, have been out of power for a very long time. (Canada is a parliamentary system, so there are a number of other political parties).

Prior to this week’s election, the Progressive Conservatives had dominate control of the Alberta legislature.

And then the unthinkable occurred. After 43 years in power, the citizens of Alberta finally decided that they had had enough of the conservative policies of the Progressive Conservatives and threw them out of office en masse in one of the most stunning electoral defeats ever. This was a revolution by the ballot box.

So what led to this seismic reversal of political fortune? Alberta election marks change that makes economic sense:

When the Progressive Conservative party in Alberta swept to power under Peter Loughheed in 1971 it was definitely a party of the people. But by earlier this year, with Jim Prentice in charge, it had become like the 1950s TV show Father Knows Best, with the role of “Father” played by big business.

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A number of my family served in Vietnam. Amazingly, they all came back alive, but were forever scarred. A few of my friends and neighbors were not so lucky.

April 30, 1975 was the fall of Saigon.  It came only two weeks after the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 17, 1975.  Days earlier Operation Eagle Pull, the U.S. Marines helicopter evacuation of Phnom Penh, was carried out on April 12, 1975. The Fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. “The fall of Phnom Penh proved to be an even greater tragedy, as it paved the way for a takeover by the ruthless Khmer Rouge, whose leader Pol Pot orchestrated the Cambodian Genocide, in which an estimated two million people died from 1975 to 1979.”

This iconic image of the last flight out of Saigon on April 30, 1975 is forever etched in my memory.

Evacuees mount a staircase to board an American helicopter at the Pittman Building near the American Embassy in Saigon.  United Press International’s Hugh van Es /Bettman – Corbis

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