The Confederate flag has become the subject of national controversy. It was thrust into the spotlight most recently after a shooting at a South Carolina church. However, just because of an unintelligent kid who had a different view of the Confederate flag, doesn’t mean it should go away for good.

The flag stood tall during the Civil War as a battle flag, but it is now seen as racist. To be fair, it is very obvious that some racists have used the Confederate battle flag for their pathetic and useless causes, like the KKK now does. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, when racism was at its peak, the KKK was flying the American flag not the Confederate flag. Should we now hate the American flag too?

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave! But like most things, one has to stand up and be ready to fight for his rights as an American citizen. Most citizens would agree that under the First Amendment, they are allowed the right to express themselves openly.

The First Amendment gives all Americans the right to express themselves, however they see it, but only in a legal and lawful way. Therefore, Southerners have the right to display the Confederate flag, the same way  people display the rainbow flag for marriage equality.

Ben Jones wrote a piece in the New York Times that I think made a critical point; he said that slavery wasn’t, “…the Southern sin, but the national sin.” Further, the flag honors the deaths of hundreds of thousands who died in the Civil War for “what they thought was right in their time,” and whose “valor became legendary in military history.”

What that means is that we, the American people, are all in the same boat. No one is different. Everybody is equal. If some people look over and see a Confederate flag flying off a truck, they assume the driver is racist. They might not consider that the driver is just showing southern pride and heritage, not racism.

The Confederate flag on top of the General Lee made a statement that the values of the South were the values of courage and family. The beloved symbol is now being attacked in a wave of political correctness. We are a nation of free speech and free expression aren’t we? Activists and politicians are demonizing southern culture and heritage as being racist.

The Confederate flag has been thrown into battle again, a battle that we should not be fighting. Many people depict the Confederate flag as being a symbol of racism, but in reality it’s just a symbol of Southern pride.