I want to give my condolences to the victims and the families of the victims of the senseless killings in Charleston. The man that did this is evil and an animal. I also want to commend the families of the victims for showing Dylann Roof forgiveness and sympathy after slaying their relatives. I know that is hard to do and it shows that they are true Christians. I know they were good people and never deserved such demise.

I also want to say that I am ashamed of our president for his response address to the nation. Rather than speak about the victims of this horror, he chose to focus more on the history of the church and about white hatred against blacks. He spoke more about slavery in the USA than he gave remorse for the victims. He also slipped a few bits in about relaxed gun laws. So what I’m saying is he saw an opportunity to put an even larger wedge in black/white American relations than he already has. Rather than give a speech recognizing the victims and making an attempt to pull us together as Americans, he chose to divide us even more. He has done this several times in the last three years. I don’t care if you are black or white, you should be able to see what our leader is doing to us. He is dividing us and has already set us back and done more damage that is probably not repairable. I can even see it in my small town of Andalusia. As I walked in a local convenience store, I pass black people that won’t even look me in the face now. I simply hold the door as normal and say hello with no reply. I have never seen this in Andalusia, Ala., as most people (white and black) are super friendly. I don’t care what color our president is or even his religion. A good president is a good president. But this one has ruined America worse than any other. We are Americans and are suppose to be united, but now we are divided.

On the Confederate Battle flag, yes the evil guy was holding one. He was also burning an American flag. He is evil indeed but his choice of flags should not cause the wave of anti Confederate Battle flags that is taking place now. The Confederate Battle flag has taken more abuse over the years due to the type of people that choose to carry it. If everyone would learn their history, they would know that the War Between the States was NOT fought over Slavery. This was an issue of the era, but was not the cause or the reason for this War. In fact, there were still slaves in the north during the war and most of the Union Generals still had slaves. For instance, only a small percentage of Alabamians owned slaves before the War so why would 144,000 men go fight a war for something they did not care about? Please read your history and not Hollywood’s history or what the media portrays. For the people that are still concerned about slavery after 150 years, please do Humanity a favor and protest and fight for the still existing slaves in many African countries. YES, slavery is alive and well in many countries. Please go help them and not only complain about something that ended 150 years ago in United States. Hate groups such as the KKK, Skinheads and many other neo nazi groups have ruined and defaced our history and the Confederate Battle Flag buy carrying it. There are Black and White hate groups and all need to be sought and dismantled and not our historic symbols. We all need to wake up and see what our government is doing to us. This is my take….

Randy Reese

Andalusia