Being a descendent of a confederate fighter is only degrees better than being a descendent of an SS member, Gestapo, or any other bigoted violent group that has killed Americans.

I find it amusing that anyone who disagrees with the pro-south propaganda is called a leftist. I mean, I vote Republican, serve in the same elite US army unit as GWB, Dan Quayle, and the DC Sniper, and so forth. Yet because I think waging war against the greatest democracy the world has ever seen is wrong be the rebels Iraqis or rednecks, I am leftist.

gymply, your relative was a traitor to America, like Arnold or Ames.

Many people, both white and black, have kin that fought, on both sides of the divide, during the Civil War. I did, I have kin who wore the blue and are buried at Sharpsburg and those of the Grey at Gettysburg. We honor those men who gave all, some for freeing all men and others who fought for the rights they believed in. Do not equate any of those with the Nazis.

You do not have any understanding of history.

Jeff, I am like you a transplanted South Carolinian in Maryland. Hope you are having a good time in “Balmar”.

UAB - I have neither the time nor the energy to educate you here. Maybe one decade you will understand the concept of state’s rights, the true principle behind the Civil War. Do you enjoy paying income tax and having the feds redistribute your hard earned cash? I sure don’t. You are correct about one thing; America is the greatest democracy the world has ever seen. I would never want to live anywhere else. And, thank you for your service to our nation. However, you have verified my thoughts about your elitist mentality by playing the redneck card.

When the flag issue came up again in the past week’s campaigning it brought out a lot of commentary from ignorant (not stupid, ignorant) people who have no voice in the affairs of the Palmetto State. I have an ancestor who died as a POW in Salisbury, NC as a captive of the CSA. I do not hold a grudge about that– I am proud to be South Carolinian by choice. I have visited the memorial on the grounds of the capitol building many times. I find it moving and highly appropriate to honor the soldiers who did their duty and sacrificed greatly for their state and for the CSA. The display of the battle flag there is appropriate. Further, I find it repulsive for someone from, say New Jersey, to tell citizens of South Carolina how they can go about honoring their heritage. Thank you for your excellent post from Baltimore. Your love for this great state shines through.

As Alexander Stephens, VP of the Confederacy, declared:

“Our new government’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery–subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.”

My guess, gymply, is Stephens knew more about why he founded the Confederacy than you.

As for states rights, Southern silence and support when the use of federal power trampled on other states’s states’ rights, and the confederacy own intoleration of states rights shows that they did not believe in the concept. It only became an issue after the war.

And gymply, just like your confederate relatives “fought for the rights they believed in” when they attacked the United States like common insurgents, so did the Nazis. And I am willing to bet that your confederate relatives and the Waffen SS agreed on many thing about black people.

Rhetorically, what is more effective in keeping the resolve of, “NEVER AGAIN”? Hiding the atrocities or keeping the symbols as a reminder, no matter how vitriolic not to go there again?

I hazard to propose that the occupation and reconstruction of the Reich will conclude long before that of the US Southern States.

I’ll happily toss my southern credentials in that swamp as well…but there would be little gained by that. Simply note that my daughter could trace eight ancestors that fell from Sharpsburg to Atlanta to Fort Monroe….and she doesn’t care a lick.

Why? It’s not because she’s ashamed of her heritage, but she places it in historic perspective. I look forward to the day when every other child in this country shares that perspective. But as long as there is political hay to be pitched at the flag’s expense … which there is, as y’alls rancorous exchange proves … then politicians will be able to use it as a shroud to hide just how little they’ve done for the people who either worship the flag or would spit on it if they had a chance.

Despite the words of the commercial, showing the flag isn’t “waving a red flag at a bull.” It’s a magician’s cape, drawing the eye of the gullible away from the chicanery going on right under their nose. Do something about today’s injuries; then perhaps we’d all be in a better mood to bind old wounds.

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”