Compromise

There is a way around Arkansas flag dispute

Another controversy concerning the role the Confederacy should play in recognizing history is brewing, this time in Arkansas.

For years, the familiar Arkansas flag sported the state’s name in the center diamond with one star above and two stars beneath. Those stars symbolize France, Spain and the United States, the three nations the state had been governed by. They also recognize that Arkansas was the third state formed from the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1923 state lawmakers added a fourth star. It symbolizes Arkansas under the Confederacy. It was placed above the state name with the other three stars below and that’s the design we have today.

State Rep. David Whitaker, a Democrat from Fayetteville , has filed a bill to eliminate the fourth star and return the flag to it’s pre-1923 configuration.

Whitaker says honoring the Confederacy means the flag doesn’t represent all Arkansans or the state’s values.

But there has been pushback from some who say changing the flag would be denying history. There is another way to handle this.

The solution, as we see it, doesn’t have to mean redesign and replacement of existing flags. The legislature could pass a bill designating the top star as representing the United States and one of the bottom stars as representing the CSA. It would place the U.S. in the position of honor, where it belongs, while keeping historical accuracy since the state has been under four, not three, governing nations. The three stars on the bottom would also still recognize the Louisiana Purchase as they do now.

Would that fly? Who knows. It’s a compromise and these days that’s too often a dirty word. But it’s something lawmakers should think about before they take a hard stand either way.