Sunday letters: Meaning of Confederate flag has changed over years

Growing up in Columbia in the 1940s, we never saw the Confederate flag. I guess we knew what it looked like, but never thought about it. We were very proud of the Confederacy because we stood up to the bossy federal government. God forgive us; we did buy into the “Gone With the Wind” mystic a bit too much. We were not proud of slavery but believed that it would have died a natural death for economic reasons, if given the chance.

My point is that when the flag became popular, it was for all the wrong reasons.

Our pretty nostalgic little flag is tainted. At best it stands for bravery and fighting and dying for your beliefs, but on the losing side of a bad war. But now, it is at its worst, and it stands for resisting integration and resenting again what the federal government has declared is right.

The people of Charleston and the A.M.E. Church have given us a lesson in love and the right thing to do. Let’s all South Carolinians respond by taking the flag down, and let it return to its respected quiet place in our history.

Blythewood

This story was originally published July 4, 2015 at 7:30 PM.