First Amendment covers flags

When Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Gen. Ulysses Grant in April 1865, the War Between States should have ended, but shots were fired by far-flung forces afield for two more months: in Baldwin County, Alabama; Columbus, Georgia; Cameron County, Texas, and, lastly, at sea off the coast of Alaska (Coca-Cola inventor Col. John Pemberton was wounded at Columbus).

One Civil War battle rages on today over the Confederate battle flag. Those who display this flag aren’t insane enough to wish for slavery’s return. Nor do they want to secede from the Union because we have a black president. We don’t pillory those who support hopeless causes like the Chicago Cubs, so if it’s legal to burn Old Glory in public, why is it abhorrent to unfurl this tired old relic of times past?

Granted, the Stars and Bars ought not to wave over Southern capitol domes, just as capitols in Salem and Sacramento shouldn’t fly the Union Jack or the Mexican Flag; all remembrances of non-U.S. government in those places. Beyond that, let’s remember the First Amendment right of free expression, even for those loony for lost causes, be they Cub or Confederate.

Dale Roloff

Spokane