Letter to Fayetteville Observer
From: XtianConfdrt@aol.com
Dear Chuck:
Below is my letter to the Fayetteville NC Observer regarding Mrs. Jean Gouveia’s column:
Words can alter how we think
Jean Cromer Gouveia
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=288073
I want to thank all those who write letters to these newspapers which feature columns by anti-Confederate "writers." I do think we need to respond to every one of these, and I believe our letters make a difference and are so necessary.
Dear Editors:
As a retired US veteran, native Tarheel, and Civil War re-enactor, I was quite saddened to read Mrs. Jean Gouveia’s column regarding Leonard Pitts’ comments on the Confederate flag. Rather than reading and delving into American history, she bases her opinions on someone whose animosity toward the flag is bordering on obsessive/compulsive behavior.
Doesn’t she realize that nothing ever occurred under the Confederate flag that did not also occur under “Old Glory”? The Confederate flag never flew over any ship involved in the slave trade nor was it featured in any of the lynching photos I have ever seen. Moreover, the Confederate flag was not utilized by the Klan until the early 1950’s when they began flying it in their protest against integration and the civil rights movement. Prior to that time, their principal flag was, sad to say, our Stars and Stripes.
In equating the Confederate flag to the Nazi banner, Pitts insults those Confederate grandfathers who sent their grandsons to fight Nazi tyranny in Europe during World War II and our Jewish citizens with Confederate ancestry. I believe a good perspective is to evaluate the individual flying the flag and their intentions before condemning it outright.
Dr. Arnold M. Huskins
Augusta, Ga.
