Dear Editor,
Timothy Hill’s article “Confederate flag should fly high” posed a few interesting ideas but expressed an uninformed opinion of Civil War history and contemporary ideology.
Confederate proponents love to tell us that the flag does not represent racism; rather it is an affirmation of state’s rights. The “right” in question was the right to property. Lets all be absolutely clear on what this property was: human beings.
That the Confederate flag is a symbol of our past is certain, a past checkered by the unfortunate institution of human slavery.
Whether Mr. Hill wants to admit it or not that is exactly what this flag represents.
When a friend of mine from California visited beautiful East Tennessee she was appalled that this flag was still being flown in the back of pick-up trucks and on bumper stickers. She didn’t look at the flag and say, “Hey look, remember the Civil War?” For her this helped reinforce the stereotype that white southerners are both uneducated and racist.
There are many reminders of the atrocity of American slavery without having to wave a Confederate flag.
The countless books (textbooks included), articles, re-enactments, movies, plays, not to mention the continued disenfranchisement and racism toward African-Americans reminds us everyday of the work that still needs to be done to elevate the status of this group so that they too can be true participants in the dream we like to call “the land of the free.”
The truth is, Mr. Hill, that the people out here waving the Confederate flag are not doing it because they are history or Civil War buffs. They are not putting the bumper stickers on their cars because they want people to remember the atrocities committed against African-Americans as they built this country. They wish to align themselves with a perverse idea of “southern pride.”
Unfortunately such pride has no part in contemporary American society. As a collective group we have come a long way since the brutalities of slavery. It’s a shame there are certain individuals out there that have not.
Joshua C. Gambrel

Author