Ron Byers: Learn and move on

This South Carolina native baby boomer has never owned or displayed these Confederate items: a flag, bumper sticker, t-shirt or tattoo. To me, they’re all symbols of hate.

But we can’t, nor should we, as a free society legislate away or try to hide from things we find personally offensive. The Confederate flag and the swastika, like them or not, are historical reminders people fought and died on the wrong side of history.

We must never forget. We hopefully learn from these tragedies and move on.

Rap music, same-sex couples kissing, handguns, Duke baseball caps and men my age with comb-overs are all offensive to me. But they’re part of our cultural fabric. I deal with them and move on.

This story was originally published June 27, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Ron Byers: Learn and move on."