Joseph T. Barwick: Keep statue, lose flag

Regarding J. Peder Zane’s July 1 column “As a testament to mercy, take it down”: Don’t rush to tear down the statues of the Confederate dead.

They were not the first or last to die courageously in a war declared by rich white men for a cause they could scarcely understand.

However, it is those of us raised in the South in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s who destroyed the battle flag’s symbolism of heritage.

We did it every time we used it as wrapping for every racist joke, derogatory racist myth and race-based slur that we told, laughed at or at least tolerated without protest. We kept racism alive long after slavery was gone, and we used that flag to do it.

It has to go, not because it is offensive to African-Americans, but because white Southern culture has allowed it to become the racist symbol it is. And if that is our heritage, it is nothing to be proud of.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Joseph T. Barwick: Keep statue, lose flag."