In this day in age, the confederate flag should not be flown on government and community property and when one is taken down no one should be upset;in fact, they should celebrat the fact that we are evolvign beyond our racist past and moving toward a more enlightened future. Government or community property would be courthouses, town halls, capitol buildings, and any other structure that would be seen as a representation of the populous. This does not mean that the flag would be banned; that would break the first amendment and be deemed unconstitutional and un-American. However, the flag should not be allowed to fly on property that represents citizens of America.  The flag is a symbol of slavery and oppression, not the way of the American people. When the confederate flag was taken down on the campus of Ole Miss, there were negative responses (which doesn’t make sense).

During the Civil War, the Confederacy, also known as the Rebels, fought against the Union for states’ rights. The major, possibly only, right the Confederacy fought for was the right to own “servants.” Men, woman, and children were forced from their homes, onto a ship, across an ocean, to come work day and night on a farm, without pay. These humans were shackled, beaten, disfigured, branded, starved, and sold off like cattle. At least, the ones who didn’t die of diseases like smallpox and scurvy. As horrific as this all sounds, the South’s economy could not survive without slaves to work the farms, so when the North argued that slavery was wrong, the South retaliated. They seceded, claiming that the government was trying to take away their rights, and thus began the war. Today, the Confederate flag is seen emblem of the South, but do we really want our image to be one of pro-slavery and traitors to our own country?

Yes, the flag is a part of our history, culture, and who we are. However, we are not the same “South” as we were back then, and America isn’t the same either. Today, we know to oppress another human being is immoral and we know that the old South, the South that flew the Confederate flag with pride, did in fact oppress human beings. We should this un-American symbol fly in front of our courts, schools, and city halls. It tarnishes the good name of the modern, post-slavery South, and portrays its citizens as humans who oppress other humans. There is no valid reason for any good, patriotic American citizen to be upset about getting rid of an un-American symbol.