Confederate obsession misplaced zeal?

Dear Editor:

I have always been proud of my families' service in the defense of our country. My ancestors served during the Civil War, the Spanish America War, and both World Wars. However, I did learn from my father that war is a terrible ordeal. He did not believe that war was something to glorify. It was just something we have to engage in from time to time, as a duty to our country and for our families and neighbors.

The current fad among some southern white males to wave the Confederate Flag is most troubling. Many of them have joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans as way to legitimize their misplaced zeal. The want to glorify a period of unpleasantness in our history.

Those who died in battle and from disease and starvation did so out of a sense of duty. These latter-day confederates are waving the Stars and Bars for a wholly different reason – which is to promote their own deep-seated racism.

I, like my parents, grew up in a segregated society. But during my lifetime we have witnessed a great change. We now in live in a society that would have been quite unimaginable before I was born.

We have adapted to these changes and most of us live and work together as neighbors rather well.

Some folks have not adapted well to this kind of change. Your paper has reported that some erected

" the largest and tallest Confederate flag flying in Alabama." They use it as a thinly veiled banner for their hatred of others.

People like this are an ugly growth in our community. They make no positive contributions. They only breed fear and hate.

These people should be shunned and disassociated with by everyone who desires to live together with their neighbors and move our community forward.

David Walters

Andalusia