Taking down the Confederate flag shouldn't be our ultimate goal

While I'm happy to see pressure placed on states like South Carolina and Mississippi to remove the Confederate flag from the state Capitols (and slightly alter the Mississippi state flag), I hope this doesn't result in us bypassing the more important issues of gun violence and (human) racism. Granted, the Confederate flag has long stood as a symbol for hatred and intolerance, but with or without it, racism will still be present. With or without it, Dylann Roof would still have shot and killed nine African-Americans at the Emanuel Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina last week. I, for one, would be glad to see the Confederate flag removed from South Carolina's Capitol, but I think it's of greater importance for the country to start discussing race and guns more openly, come to a nationwide agreement that we continue to have problems in those two areas, and to try and come together to make the changes necessary to decrease their frequency in the years to come. Removing the Confederate flag may be a start, but let's not focus so much on its removal that we lose sight of the bigger picture.