How do you fight fire with fire when faced with the Confederate flag? Get a Black Lives Matter flag of your own, according to Susan Kosior.
The Virginia resident, who is white, took out a permit to raise a Black Lives Matter flag high up in her backyard after attempts to remove or lower a confederate flag that’s visible from I-95 were denied. The confederate flag is on private property, but can be seen for miles.
“I have a daughter who is eight years old and she is a person of color,” Kosier told a local news outlet. “And I want to leave this to be a better world for her. I want her to grow up knowing that she is safe and that she is happy and secure wherever we are, and that gives me courage to do I think is best.”
The Stafford county attorney determined that officials had no rights to remove the offending flag, which has been up since 2014, despite the many complaints.
Kosoir’s answer was to raise up to $25,000 to put up her own 30-by-50-foot Black Lives Matter flag on an 80- foot flagpole.
As for the Confederate flag, it is s flying on the property of Hubert Wayne Cash, who says that the flag represents his heritage.
“There’s no hate, there’s no hate here,” said Cash.
His flag was paid for by the Virginia Flaggers, a group that flies confederate flags along highways across Virginia. They are paying Cash $1 for a 100-year lease of his land.