About That Flag Thing...

I am a Northerner. I was born and raised in the North. I have only "lived" in the South on vacations. I am a Yankee through and through. As far as the Civil War is concerned:

• The Battle of Gettysburg saved the United States. 
• The Gettysburg Address was brilliant. 
• My great, great uncle was killed at The Wilderness while being the flag bearer for the US army.
• The death of Abraham Lincoln was a tragedy for the south as much as the north, perhaps even more so. 
• Jefferson Davis was a traitor to the United States.
• It was not a war of northern aggression
• It was always about slavery- state's rights meant the right to own slaves.

And, because of all the above, I have always been offended by the flying of the Confederate battle flag. It has always been a symbol of at least a bunch of good ol' boys wanting to whoop it up and at worst- racism.

As such it does not belong hanging on the same flag pole or near the flag that all these conservative pundits claim they want to honor and wear on their lapels- the American Flag- the official flag of the United States. If you want to be patriotic, it is not for the so-called heritage of the south. It is for the USA. My father did not go to war to save the confederate flag. He fought under the Stars and Stripes.

Let's get over it and be Americans- citizens of the UNITED States, not the confederate states.

[Does this mean it should be illegal to own or sell the confederate flag. No, I don't think so, any more than it is illegal to own or sell a Nazi flag or Soviet flag, two other defeated nations. It may be in bad taste and offensive at times to display it, but it's not illegal.]