Carol Moseley-Braun speaking against granting a design patent in the use of the Confederate flag
Senator Carol Moseley-Braun continued, "As the patent commissioner, Mr. Kirk, wrote in a letter, issued April, 30, quote, "in the absence of design patent protection and regardless of statutory protection, nonprofit organizations have still other options for obtaining protection for their badges, insignias, logos and names," and so this is not an issue about protecting the insignia of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and nor is it an issue about whether or not they do good works in the community. Nor is it an issue of whether or not the organization has a right to use this insignia. I think the answer in all those cases is they have the right to use whatever insignia they want, they have a right to organize in anyway they want, they have a right to conduct whatever business they want. But at the same time it is inappropriate for this Senate, for this United States Congress to grant a special, an extraordinary impramarter if you will, Mr. President, to assemble, which is as inappropriate to all of us as Americans, as this one is. The daughters, I've heard the arguments on the floor today with regard to the impramarter that's being sought for this organization and for this symbol. And I submit to you, Mr. President, that this is really revisionist history, the fact of the matter is that the emblems of the Confederacy has meaning to Americans even a hundred years after the end of the Civil War. Everybody knows what the confederacy stands for. Everybody knows what the insignia means. That matter of common knowledge is not a surprise to any of us and, and when a former governor stood, raised the confederate battle flag over the Alabama state capitol to protest the federal government's support for civil rights and a visit by the attorney general at the time in 1963. Everybody knew what that meant. Now, in this time, in 1993 when you see the confederate symbols hauled out, everybody knows what that means. And so I submit as Americans we have an obligation, number one to recognize the meaning, not to fall prey to revisionist history on the one hand and also really to make a statement that we believe the civil war is over. We believe that as Americans, we are all Americans and have a need to be respectful of one another, with regard to our respected histories, that just as I would, whether we are black or white or northerner or southerners, all Americans share a common history and we share a common flag. The flag, which is behind you right now, Mr. President is our flag. The flag that is stars and stripes forever is our flag, whether we are from the north or south, whether we are African American or not that is our flag. And to give a design, to give a design patent to flag that that, to give a design patent that even our own flag does not enjoy to a symbol of the confederacy seems to me Mr. President just to be backwards and just to create the kind of divisions in our society that our counterproductive, that are not needed. And so I come back to the point that I raised to begin with, which is what is the point of doing this, why would we give and extraordinary honor to a symbol which is counter the symbol, we as Americans I believe all know and love, which would be a recognition, if you will, of the losing side of the war, a war that I hope, while it is a painful part of our history I hope as Americans we have all gotten past and we can say as Americans we come together under a single flag and if this organization chooses to honor the losing side of the civil war then that's their prerogative. But it is inappropriate for that organization to call on the rest of us, on everybody else, to give our imprimatur to the symbolism of the Confederate flag."