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Everything you say is true in a de facto not a de jure sense. I do not recall anything in the US Constitution that codifies the right to own slaves as eternal. I am of course aware of the 3/5ths language but that is not the same as a clear codification. Had the CSA continued to exist the legal institution of negro slavery would have been protected by its constitution. One can argue that there would have eventually been a legal challenge and a likely amendment but such an argument falls under the heading of idle speculation.

The thread though is about one particular flag and as I said, I can see legitimacy in both camps. As long as there is political gain to be had by posturing one way or the other the intentional misunderstanding and the resultant head-butting will continue and everyone loses.

This discussion seems to happen at least twice a week and some very good compromises have been proposed but the far right and far left insist upon having their way....

If the flag is only about the soldiers, it needs to be proudly displayed at the battlefield cemeteries and during the ceremonies that honor those soldiers. However, if that society which these soldiers gave their lives for is being honored and the flag is a way of saying "It is still our land, our way of life, and we still support that way of life", then the flag needs to be removed from government displays in any official capacity... To far too many black people, it says "You are not welcome here!" I think about the group Alabama and for some reason, the flag fits. I think about First Manassus (a.k.a First Battle of Bull Run) and the flag fits... If I go to a court house, I think I am less comfortable. If I get pulled over by a police officer displaying the flag, I am very uncomfortable. I go into a bar and I see the flag, if I see the flag, I am going to finish my drink and leave.

The flag symbolizes what divides us, not what unites us.

And the discussion of the Civil War can be debated all year long. What I find interesting is that Jim Crow Laws, lynchings, sharecropping, all the other things that happened afterwards where that flag was waved in anger against minorities is excluded. This is why the flag is so divisive.

I think there has never been a separation of honoring the veterans versus honoring the society they defended. Without that, the flag will continue to have a negative meaning within certain groups. Sad, but true....