[CaptainCrunch]

This flag thing is crazy, its representative of a horrible system run by a staunch government built around the concept of enslavement.

The argument from the people that want to keep the flag is two fold.

1) Our states have a right to remember our history.
2) If you get rid of the flag, its a slippery slope to getting rid of the monuments, street names etc that are a key part of Southern History.

I'm of a mind that you shouldn't and can't bury history, no matter how odorous it is, History is the relentless application of modern ideology to past fact. That's why I question a lot of analysis because they take the decisions that people made and base them either around facts that those individuals didn't know, or around modern day ideals.

Nathan Beford Forrest was a #######, while he was a brilliant cavalry officer who's tactics are used to this day by the U.S. military he was one of the highest profile recruits in the KKK, he was a slave trader prior to the start of the civil war, he was a reprehensible man, but people also forgot his last speech was to the Independent Order of Pole Bearers which was a black group that advocated reconciliation between the Black's and Whites, and Forrest made what was considered to be a fairly progressive speech.

So the question now becomes, do they still pull down the monument to him?

As for the Confederate Flag, I think that it should be removed from government grounds, its a reminder of a repressive government with evil goals that advocated slavery and a war within a nation that left masses dead.

If people want to remember their civil war history and look at its influence, you can see that a lot of national guard and regular U.S. military units can be traced directly back to the civil war including the 116th Combat Brigade in in Virginia which actually got its start under Stonewall Jackson as the Stonewall Brigade. The Alabama National Guard which is a direct descendant of the 4th Alabama Infantry and many others. These units have civil war reminders in their unit patches and battle honors.

Groups like the Son's of the Confederate Veterans don't need the flag of the government if they want to pay tribute they can look to the individual units.