Bree Newsome, a courageous, badass, and very athletic civil rights hero climbed the flagpole in front of the South Carolina statehouse and took down the symbol of treason to our country and oppression of so many of our fellow Americans.

While she was clinging to the pole with the flag in hand, Newsome shouted: ‘You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. 

‘I come against you in the name of God.

‘This flag comes down today.’

As she calmly descended the pole and lowered the flag into the waiting arms of police, Newsome said ‘the Lord is my light and my salvation’ and announced she was prepared to be arrested.

She is my hero.

Photo credit Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3141473/Woman-removes-Confederate-flag-SC-statehouse.html

She deserves the same respect as others who took down symbols of oppression and/or treason, for example the courageous Hungarians who toppled the statue of Lenin,

People gather around a fallen statue of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in front of the National Theater in Budapest, Hungary, in this Oct. 24, 1956 file photo. (AP Photo/Arpad Hazafi, file)

the jubilant people of Baghdad who pulled down the statue of Saddam,

Photo credit: CNN

the jubilant Germans who “tore down that wall,”

Photo courtesy of the ITAR-TASS News Agency, via gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/after/fall.php

and even the patriots who tore down the statue of George III.

Manhattan Patriots tearing down statue of King George III. By William Wallcut, 1854. Image from http://danielhutchinson.squarespace.com/hi334

We didn’t put the statues of George III or Saddam back up, but they did put the Confederate flag back up — just in time for the pro-treason flag rally later in the morning. 

Thank God for Bree Newsome, for Jim Obergefell, and for so many others who see something that needs to be done and go do it.