by Scott Christmas

Created on: June 13, 2008

For many folks living in the southern United States, the Confederate flag is a piece of Americana that represents southern pride, unity, and culture. Many southerners revere the Confederate flag as a vital piece of southern history that has a reverential place in the collective memory. As someone who has lived the majority of his life primarily in the "south," I am well-acquainted with depictions of the Confederate flag, and it is not uncommon to see it displayed on walls, T-shirts, and the rear windows of automobiles. Within just the last few days, I saw an old pick-up truck with a Confederate flag bumper sticker and a slogan that read: "I don't need YOUR permission to honor MY ancestors." As this sentiment illustrates, many southerners feel deeply threatened by "outsiders" who want to take away their traditions.

But in this day and age, does anyone, southerner or otherwise, have any business revering the Confederate flag? I believe the answer to that question is no. This is not to say that folks should not have the right to honor whatever they want to honor. One of our country's greatest achievements is the freedom of speech and expression. If you want to put up a flag with Osama Bin Laden's picture on, you are certainly free to do so. But while I would not support the forced removal of Confederate flags from personal property, I do not have much respect for those who still revere this 19th century emblem. And by no means do I believe the Confederate flag has any business having its own special "Flag Day," for cultural and historical purposes or not.

No matter how hard many southerners try to argue that the Confederate flag represents southern culture and honor to southern ancestors, there are half a dozen other things it also represents, which make it repulsive and offensive to self-respecting Americans.

Everyone understands the connection the Confederate flag has to slavery. That, by itself, is enough of a black eye on the Confederate flag to make it unworthy of respect. But perhaps equally important is how the Confederate flag stands to remind our country of what was without question the deepest, darkest period in our nation's history. The Confederate flag is an emblem for divisiveness and anti-American sentiment. What could be more treasonous than to secede from the Union? Yet this is precisely what the southern states did in 1860, forming their own country, with their own government, president, and flag. The "rebel flag," then, represents secession and

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