You only see racism because you want to

By Dee Gibney, Hamilton

To Rednecks for BL: The Confederate flag no more stands for slavery than pickles do for elephants. To begin only 2/3/ of 1 percent owned slaves out of 31 million people which was the total population in 1860. At that time in 1860 only Democrats owned slaves. The flag for the soldiers became symbols, for those who served under them for their esprit-de-corps and sacrifice. You don’t know your history and are being sold a bill of goods that is not true by socialist liberals who want to destroy this country. The south had slaves yes, but most did not own them and most that fought did not own them either. When states were being added to the Union the north and south fought over which would be free and which would be slave. Why! Simple, the south had very few people living in it, while the north was very populated. Lincoln the south believed, would go with free states over slave. The more free states added would give more power to the north to pass whatever they wanted in Congress, the south did not like that at all. If you read firsthand accounts you will see the northern soldiers wrote they did not want the Union split in two, while the south secession was about states rights. These rights exalted the powers of the individual states as opposed to the federal government. The war was about the south wanting more power than they thought they would get if Lincoln was elected. Both sides believed in what they were doing and people like you Mary, desecrate our history and memory to those who fought for what they believed whether they were right or wrong. It is our history and we need to preserve it and honor I, not destroy it by falsely believing a flag stands for slavery. Slavery happened in many cultures, get over it already! It is past history, learn from it but don’t destroy it.