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Lawmakers in Ohio have rejected a push to ban all Confederate memorabilia at county fairs proposed by a house representative who said such imagery promoted slavery.
Democrat Juanita Brent, who represents District 12 in the state’s house of representatives, had introduced an amendment to House Bill 665 being discussed to allow fairs to be held during the coronavirus pandemic.
She had hoped her proposal would result in a ban on the sale and display at county fairs of Confederate imagery, including flags.
“We have to keep Ohio’s promise that everyone feels safe and secure within the United States, particularly within Ohio, and people are not going to feel safe seeing a confederate flag every time they go to the county independent fair,” she told the house agriculture and rural development committee.
“But, this is not part of Ohio’s history, and we should not be encouraging it,” she added.
However Republican state Rep. Don Jones said any discussion over whether to ban flags should be expanded to include all flags and that decisions on their prohibition should be made at the county level.
“We’ve got a lot of enemies of our country and I just don’t know that this is the appropriate bill, the appropriate time. If we are going to start to ban flags, I think we ban all of those flags, not just one,” he said, according to WVXU.
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