We get a lot of this BS down here. 1. The Confederacy was committed to slavery. 2. The South Carolina flag was a single white star on a blue field. Then came the stars and bars and then the St. Andrews Cross which was the southern battle flag, the one now used to fly over half of Georgia's flag. This battle flag was reinstituted by George Wallace in his attempt to furthur segregation in the South in 1954. The Ku Klux Klan has adopted it as their flag. 4. Freedom of speech might be extended to the Nazi party in the U.S. or the so-called "Aryan Nation" or whatever but the flying of this flag is as offensive to an African American as the flying of a swastika flag to Jewish people. It should come down. As to the Confederacy, they don't apparently think they lost the war. And as to the logic that the U.S. was committed to the slave trade, this is specious. The colonies may have been but once the Civil War was settled, slavery was abolished as it never was in the Confederacy. There are some yahoos around down here who are still fighting the Civil War and have a legacy of racism, hatred and fanaticism behind them.

"We will rally from the hillside, gather from the plain, Shouting the battle cry of freedom! And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave. Shouting the battle cry of freedom! The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah. Down with the traitor and up with the star as we Rally round the flag, boys, rally once again. Shouting the battle cry of freedom!"

I think that Henry C. Work was pretty specific as to what the Confederacy stood for. It was a defense of a way of life that was abhorrent to civilized people in both the North and the South because it embraced slavery.

Frank Hamilton