You now need to square up with your denial that “That flag represents a heritage of treason, bigotry, hostility.”
The Republican party of 1860-61 and Lincoln were guilty of bigotry, hostility and treason to the Constitution by attacking Charleston harbor.
Be a big boy and admit that the Confederate flag represents Independence, despite its misuse by various chaos groups.
‘Confederate flag represents Independence’
In general I don’t have a problem with that statement.
‘denial that “That flag represents a heritage of treason, bigotry, hostility.”’
Wrong tense on the verb.
“The history of this country from the time of the first settlers until today is full of instances of less than stellar humanity on the part of its citizens.”
I don’t hold to your point of view that ‘”That flag represents a heritage of treason, bigotry, hostility.”’ Any failings of this country on the ‘bigotry/hostility’ front have been more than compensated for by subsequent actions. The South chose a course as did the North. Your examples in your interesting test show hypocrisy on the part of the North if slavery was the issue. Seccession in this case failed as I think it should have. I honor the sacrifice of the soldiers of the North and the South for the same reason: They were Americans.