No one has 'banned' the swastika- it is publicly and legally worn by the Aryan Nations and National Front types.Fortunately, no U.S. state has chosen to make it part of its state flag.

If more than a third of the population of Mississippi is non-white (1990 Census) and they find it offensive, then I think its not quite so simple, if in our Republic the rights and feelings of a substantial portion of the population are to be respected.

At the time the battle flag came into being the Black slave population of Mississippi outnumbered the White population by over three to one- and I suspect the majority of the population then found it pretty objectionable.

I also suspect that it might be offensive to a good portion of the white population today as well- especially those who remember Goodwin, Schwerner and Cheney and other atrocities committed under the aegis of that flag much more recently than 1861-1865.

This is not a case of 'banning' the flag, but of the use of it as a symbol representing ALL the people of the state- for which it appears to be singularly inappropriate in this day and age.

Best, Greg