I am writing in response to Brett Scuilettis article,“ The Confederate flag continues to create controversy.” I was deeply offended and appalled by the

editorial’s lack of respect for my cultural heritage. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued not because Lincoln believed that the slaves should be freed, but as a strategic military maneuver to both cause chaos in the South as well as to disrupt the Confederacy’s attempts to form alliances with European countries.

Lincoln verbally opposed any legislation that would improve the lives of African Americans as a young politician in Illinois. He was known for making offensive racial jokes and slurs in front of African American servants during these times. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not free all of the slaves. States loyal to the Union were allowed to keep their slaves. Lincoln was seeking to preserve, and certainly was not trying to destroy the institution of slavery itself.

If Lincoln was truly concerned with the welfare of African Americans then he would have freed them at the beginning of the war, not nearly two years later!

Another point of interest is that Union Commander Ulysses S. Grant and his family did, in fact, own slaves. Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee was opposed to slavery, as were many other Confederates. He acted on his beliefs and ordered that all of his slaves should be freed. Lee was an honorable man.

My Confederate ancestor, Capt. Neil Alexander Maultsby, did not own any slaves, which was true of the vast majority of Confederate soldiers. They fought for the South and against an oppressive federal government, not for slavery.

The founding fathers envisioned a nation where if the government was not serving its citizens, then it should be replaced with one that would. Thomas Jefferson said, “And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

Lincoln won the presidency without any Southern support and in response the Confederacy was formed on the ideals that our founding fathers envisioned. Scuiletti goes on to claim, “We have one heritage, our American heritage, and one flag, our American Flag.” Contrary to this claim, America is a melting pot of different cultures and heritages and this is what makes our country great.

Many Americans’ ancestors came from England, whose flag flew over legalized slavery for quite a while longer than the Confederate flag. I hope that this same group of the political correctness police would not seek to relegate the British Flag to museums and historical sites as a reminder of past mistakes. Under which flag were the Native Americans murdered, inflicted with disease, stolen from and herded like cattle simply because we wanted to steal their land? Under which flag were Japanese American citizens put in concentration camps during World War II based solely on their ethnicity? The answer is, of course, the American flag but the editorial does not demand that it be thrown with shame into museums.

I am proud of my Southern heritage. The Confederate flag is a symbol of my past, not racism. Who should decide which cultural heritages should be respected and which should not? Am I being ethically wrong, as the editorial claims, for my ancestry? I, for one, believe that no one’s cultural heritage, no matter who disagrees with it, should be viewed as something that should be regarded as shameful.

Student: Alex Sewell, 08 - 03/08/07