Confederate flag remains sign of hate, division

To the Editor:

Summer is in full bloom and with the good weather we have the opportunity to step out of our normal routines and enjoy all the activities our community and state have to offer. We can hike, swim, play, enjoy the farmers’ market and our local county fair etc... and interact with people we might not normally encounter.

I moved here over 30 years ago and Indiana has become my home, and Greencastle, my community.

However, there have been times during those decades where I have not felt welcome and not felt safe. The appearance of the confederate flag on flag poles, T-shirts, belt buckles, license plates and other items are threatening to me and other individuals here in Indiana.

The flag we commonly call the confederate flag was not the official flag of the Confederacy but was the battle flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. After the Civil War, this flag was on its way to become only a museum exhibit until the middle of the 20th century. This flag was resurrected as part of a resistance campaign against the Civil Rights movement.

As the Civil Rights movement gathered strength in the 1950s and 1960s, especially after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the flag was used more and more by such groups as the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist and nationalist organizations.

This symbol of hate and division belongs only in museums as a history lesson for our young people of a sad part of our nation’s history and has no place in a welcoming, safe community.

Leslie Hanson

Greencastle