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Like it. I wish the Confederate flag wasn't associated with so much hate. Unfortunately too many misguided individuals took to waving it around while promoting idiot causes and have tarnish it. Rehabilitation will be quite a struggle.

My ancestors fought and died for the Confederacy and it is part of my heritage. I'm saddened that the fight was also associated to the cause of perpetuating slavery and it's expansion into Western territories. I'm more akin to believing that my family fought for their homes against an aggressive Northern force that sought to destroy their ability for their state to govern themselves without interference from a meddling Federal government.

But the reality is that the struggle will always be linked to the elitists in the South who wanted to enslave their fellow man and see that tyranny expand into new territory.

My father was raised Southern and always taught us to evaluate people on an equal basis for how they behaved "in our world", not how others judged them. I still had family however that leaned toward openly racist behavior. Today they have either passed on or now have several children married to Latinos, Asians or others. It has to be eye opening for them to see children as dark as mine can get carry family names we've used for over 1,000 years.

I will teach my children about our family and our Southern heritage. They will learn what I stated above and I won't hide anything. It is still a proud heritage and I am proud of it. Heck, my ancestor is the one who relayed the order to fire on Fort Sumter. We're knee deep.

I'd love to argue that all of our reasons for the war were right and just, but that's just not going to happen.

I will argue that it's my family and heritage and I will not forsake it. there were some valid reason for my family to fight. Our homes and our lands were threatened by a hostile for. Our honor was at risk, and we just don't take to people telling us what to do or how to live. That much is still true.

All the while, I will thank God in heaven that slavery was extinguish for the horrid tyranny and evil that it was and still is today. At least some good came out of the conflict.

Anyway, today we are far more enlightened as a people. That flag still represents much goodness and honor that was the South and still is, despite darker associations.

Still, if for no other reason, waving that flag around today would probably drive liberals crazy. If I worry about some parts of the past, this thought alone is enough for me to put the plate on my car.