The Confederate battle flag is an emblem of a racist culture exclusively. The Stars and Stripes are not because they embrace many other sub-cultures that are not all racist as was the Confederacy. The Southern Initiative would like to wriggle out of the fact that their culture was built on the institution of slavery where as the various cultures represented by the Stars and Stripes were not although racism is contained in the policy of every country in the world. The question remains, which cultures were built upon slavery?

As to seeing the good as well as the evil of a flag, try raising the Nazi swastika in the US and see if that meets the test. The Confederate battle flag is just the same thing. Fortunately, in spite of the racist brutality of the Confederacy, much of Southern US culture owes much to the contributions of the African-American including the dialect of the Southern drawl. If it weren't for the black musicians of the South there would be no song called Dixie because Dan Emnett would have had no inspiration to write it. The Minstrel Show tradition was an attempt to borrow from African-American culture at the same time as it denigrated it's originators.

Something similar happened when early rock and roll under the aegis of Sam Phillips took a "black sound" and made it accessible to the prejudiced popular music market by having white musicians do it. Elvis became the star rather than "Big Boy" (Arthur) Crudup, the man he learned from. The difference is that the white musicians didn't necessarilly denigrate their originators.

So the battle flag and the swastika still fly. Emblems of cultures built on racism.

Frank Hamilton