Banjer, et al,
I agree that the people of Mississippi should choose their own flag. I have no interest in telling them what they should do, or in having anyone else tell them what they should do. Most of the people who cared to vote decided to keep it, and that's the way it is.

That doesn't change the fact that most of the rest of the world views the Confederate flag as a symbol of slavery. We are just amazed that the people of Mississippi are willing to be viewed as being willing to maintain such a symbol. Whatever the flag may mean to you, it sends a clearly unpleasant message to most everyone else. I don't think that you or anyone else is a bigot purely because of a single vote; I wouldn't draw such a conclusion without more evidence. But that doesn't change the fact that that's my initial gut-level reaction. I understand that there are lots of historical, traditional, heritage-based reasons for a perfectly normal person to keep the flag -- but that is a level of understanding that only comes after discussion and thinking about it, and even then it is not one that completely convinces me.

Would you be willing to talk more fully about why you like the flag of a government that was formed mostly to protect the states' "right" to keep slaves? As in, what part of that tradition do you feel still speaks to you today? Why you want to consider yourself a part of that heritage? Why this is a part of history that needs to be celebrated? I'm really curious how you feel about these things. Thank you for any time you can spend explaining.

John Peekstok