I don't have a problem with Southern folks. I don't need the media, I spend about 25% of my life in North Carolina each year.
My problem is with people such as yourself who defend a flag that symbolizes treason, slavery, and racial hatred.
I see it firsthand in North Carolina.
The flag, historically, did not symbolize what you claim.
It is those who have adopted the flag in recent history who have used it for the wrong reasons and brought about the current debate. States rights was the real issue in the war and the loss of constitutionally sanctioned states rights will be the demise of our Bill of Rights.
I see the confederate flag as symbolizing the stand against an intrusive federal government.
http://www.usflag.org/confederate.stars.and.bars.html
Excerpt from article:
"Note: It is necessary to disclaim any connection of these flags to neo-nazis, red-necks, skin-heads and the like. These groups have adopted this flag and desecrated it by their acts. They have no right to use this flag - it is a flag of honor, designed by the confederacy as a banner representing state's rights and still revered by the South. In fact, under attack, it still flies over the South Carolina capitol building. The South denies any relation to these hate groups and denies them the right to use the flags of the confederacy for any purpose. The crimes committed by these groups under the stolen banner of the conderacy only exacerbate the lies which link the seccesion to slavery interests when, from a Southerner's view, the cause was state's rights."
Note contributed by BJ Meksikatsi.