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My view of the Confederate flag has undergone a profound change over the last twenty years, from one of disdain to now one of respect and understanding. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and anyone who knows that borough as well as I do will certainly be familiar with the monument of Grand Army Plaza. A monument built to resemble the famous Arc De Triumph in Paris, this monument also honors men who died in the service of their country. The monument at Grand Army Plaza commemorates the Grand Army of the Potomac, as the Union Army was known as during the American Civil War. Thus, I grew up with a keen awareness of the Civil War and appreciation of what these men died for, to keep America as one country. This also meant that I did not have a favorable view of the Confederate flag. I viewed the Confederate flag as many Northerners do, as a symbol of treason. However, I have now come to realize that although there are those who do use the Confederate flag as a symbol of pure hatred, there are many who justly view it as a symbol of history and heritage.

The secession movement in the South may have been spearheaded by those who wanted to preserve the practice of slavery, but for the typical southerner, who was not a wealthy plantation owner with a multitude of slaves, the war represented their belief in the right of people (and thus, states) to choose their way of life without interference. The antebellum South was a region with a distinctly different society from the rest of the United States, and the men who fought for the Confederacy did not want people who they felt did not understand them to impose their will on the South. Slavery was not universally supported by Southerners. Robert E. Lee himself, one of America's most beloved generals, was opposed to slavery. Similarly, some Southern states, such as North Carolina, did not rush to war, and did not formally join the Confederacy until after the attack on Fort Sumter. Therefore, the Confederate flag to these men and women represented not hate, but simply the symbol of their region, which they were fighting to protect from a perceived sense of domination from outside.

I have taken this new view of the Confederate flag from the fact that today there are outside forces (with help from some Americans) who are trying to impose their values on the United States. I am mainly talking about multiculturalism, a Marxist ideology which has as its aim the tearing down of the United States. Multiculturalism degrades American history and culture at every turn. And just as the typical Southerner in 1861 viewed his society as under attack, so today do many Americans resent the denigration of their country, history, and culture from people who only seek to do irreparable harm to the United States by demanding, among other things, that we allow unfettered immigration into America, and that America surrender her sovereignty to a world body such as the United Nations.

The Confederate flag represents one of the most significant chapters in American history, and thus it should be given its proper respect. To consider the Confederate flag as only a symbol of hate is itself very ignorant, just as it is ignorant and more for multiculturalism to try to impose their views on the American people.

Learn more about this author, Juan Izquierdo.
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