The Confederate Battle Flag is not really something that anyone should be proud of.

Last night, I watched Spike Lee's Four Little Girls, about the four girls who were murdered in 1963 when the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama was bombed. The film also covered the burning of black churches and attacks on peaceful protesters. I was struck by two things. How very, very similar that the rhetoric of those days from the white supremacists is to what I am seeing on television and reading on line today. The other thing I was struck by was how the Confederate battle flag, the one that is being discussed rather heatedly these days, was being used. I wish I could do some screen captures from that film, because there were just lines of white people waving the Confederate flag in the faces of the black marchers. It was obvious what that flag was being used for in the 50's and 60's. It's also a bit obvious why black people aren't really buying this whole "Southern heritage, something to be proud of" line that is being used today to justify the continued use of this flag. OK, you want to put it on your pickup? Sure. That's the 1st Amendment. But that symbol should not be part of any government building; national, state or local. White people do not get to tell black people to just get over seeing that flag after what occurred during the time that slavery was prevalent in this country and during the Civil Rights movement.