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 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.

Wants referendum on S.C. flag issue

Web posted January 15, 2000

 Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.

Editor, The Chronicle

The headline in the Jan. 10 paper said, ``Survey: Most people want flag removed.'' I was a little surprised considering every poll conducted in recent times says just the opposite.

A recent poll was conducted via the Web at about.com, a public relations site for the Greenville area. On Jan. 2, the Web site posed the question, ``How do you feel about the Confederate flag above the dome?'' Of the four possible responses, 2,885 responders (90 percent) said ``Leave it on the dome.'' Thirty five responders (1 percent) said ``Move it to the grounds.'' Two hundred sixty-five (8 percent) said ``Remove it.'' And 14 (0 percent) had no opinion.

We're told in the Associated Press article that ``Forty-three percent of voters think the flag hurts tourism.'' That flag has been on the dome since 1962 and the number of tourists that have come to our beautiful state while that flag has flown are more numerous than the sands of Myrtle Beach. It hasn't hurt tourism at all.

We're told that ``Fifty-nine percent said they wanted the flag down.'' The poll on which your front-page article was based was conducted by phone to 600 people (we're not told the diversity of the group polled) by ``the Heritage Roundtable of Greenville, a multiracial group ... working to remove the flag.'' Let's see now, those folks wouldn't have a hidden agenda, now would they?

If anyone wants to truly see the will of the people, let's have a referendum. Let the people decide! We people who love the South dearly want our voices to be heard. Ask us on election day what we want!

Glenn Dedmondt, Johnston