With the recent shooting in South Carolina reported as involving a racist who had at some point waved a Confederate battle flag on his Facebook page it seems as though folks want to blame a hate crime on a symbol. That symbol being the Confederate battle flag.
For one hundred and fifty years the symbols of the Confederate flag have flown at various state capitals and as a part of some states’ flag as a remembrance to heritage. The names of Confederate generals including that of Lee, Jackson and others have adorned military bases. Monuments to both men of the South and North can be found all over the region in which the Civil War was fought.
Each year across our country there are reenactments of Civil War battles commemorating those lives lost on both sides. We have many federal parks including Point Park, Signal Point and Chickamauga locally where we can view the war's history. There are many lessons to learn from the mistakes of our past and to do away with history by taking down a flag, by changing a name or removing a statue is just wrong.
Courageous men fought and died for both causes of the Civil War creating a heritage that has shaped our country.
I find it strange that with recent events that somehow a flag has suddenly caused a racial divide and hatred. A flag, a symbol from the past which has been perverted by evil and those who do hate does not justify violence.
The battle flag of the Confederacy is not the problem folks. The hate and lack of respect for each other is the problem.
Mike Cox
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Sometimes we must take a deep breath to understand the facts surrounding a controversy, if not a hate-filled episode, that should never have happened as it did in the South Carolina House in the wee hours of this morning. The most disgusting episode to me occurred in the House of Representatives in Washington today.
Beginning in 1860 and continuing into 1861, a league of eleven southern states separated themselves from the United States of America and joined together to form the Confederate States of America. They established their own flag since they were no longer under the flag of the United States. That Confederate flag is just as important to those eleven states historically as the flag of the United States was when each of those states rejoined the Union during the next five or six years after the Civil War ended.
Like it or not, nothing else matters concerning the Confederate flag except the fact that it was legitimate, is legitimate, and will remain legitimate until no one exists on the planet who cares about knowledge or their history. No country or confederation of states exists without a flag.
Charlotte Parton
Chattanooga