Dear Editor, This letter is in response to Sam Smith’s article “Rebel flag should not represent heritage” from the Oct. 29 edition of the East Tennessean.

I agree with the author’s views regarding his dislike towards the use of the Confederate flag as a representation of Southern heritage.

He compared it to the Nazi symbol, a swastika. However, there is a historically significant reason why Confederate flags are extremely more abundant in display than Nazi swastikas.

During World War II, Allied propaganda vilified the swastika as a symbol that represented the Nazi party’s genocide and cruelty.

The Allied powers were not worried about Germany’s feelings. During the Civil War, though, Abraham Lincoln’s main goal was to save the Union.

To do this, he needed to defeat the Confederacy enough to quell any further rebellion.

However, Lincoln also wanted the South to become a productive member of the Union again and therefore he could not utterly destroy the South.

This is seen in his decision to let Confederate soldiers keep their weapons and horses after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union forces at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Such mercy was unheard of and was extremely unexpected, but it was deemed necessary to save the Union.

The Rebel flag is another item the Southern soldiers took with them. Lincoln and the North were attempting to coax the South to assimilate easily into the Union, and thus the Rebel flag did not achieve lasting notoriety equal to the Nazi swastika in today’s opinion. Also, since the Civil War occurred over a hundred years before World War II, the negative connotations associated with the Rebel flag are distant.

The Confederate flag has changed from a symbol that embodied oppression to simply representing Southern pride, which is why it is often seen today.

-Mohammad Sabri

Author