Hank's Take: Confederate memorials

Georgetown, Del. (WTXF) - It has dominated the news since last weekend, the war over Civil War Confederate memorials which ones should stand and which should be torn down. FOX 29's Hank Flynn went down to Georgetown, Delaware, where there's a Confederate memorial and he's calling for a higher level of discourse.

FOX 29's Hank Flynn is still not hearing the conversation he needs to hear. He says he understands the sound - the fight and the fury over some of these Confederate memorials - but his take is we need to stop thinking with our emotions and start using our heads.

Orlando Dunn says he doesn't mind the stars and bars flying at the nearby Confederate memorial in Georgetown. The hatred attached to that flag by people like the Nazis and Klansmen at last weekend's Unite the Right tragedy in Charlottesville that's another story.

"If only the people represented that 'Well, this was war and these are my ancestors' but it's just too much hate tied to the flag, you know. That's what I don't like about it,' he said.

It's a fine line between memorializing historical figures and honoring them, especially ones who fought in defense of slavery. No one's sweating those details these days as Birmingham boards up it's memorial - Baltimore removed several last night and the list goes on. The Georgetown memorial was erected in 2007 and Jeff Plummer ,of the Delaware Grays, wonders if Confederate memorials come down where does it end? And who makes the call?

"I'm sure you can find something wrong about any monument in this country. It just depends on who is doing the dissecting. And when you take a monument down - you rob future generations of knowledge - of learning about their history and everybody loses. You become a nation without a past," he explained.

The Georgetown memorial is on private ground and built with private money so it's probably safe. But then, Flynn is not looking at the memorial from the perspective of someone whose ancestors were enslaved like Jedediah Roach is.

Jedediah didn't know Georgetown has a Confederate memorial. He does now he doesn't like it and he doesn't see how he could tolerate any Confederate memorial.

"No, I think it would be offensive to black people. I really do. I don't feel that there's a situation that it's not. I just feel that it needs to be stripped down," he said.