Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 17, 1990 TAG: 9007170312
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
It was April 6, 1865 when the Confederate flag was lowered in gloom - but not in shame - on the dismal field at Appomattox. For most civil-minded citizens, the belligerent feelings of the War Between the States gradually abated, received a decent burial and became history.
However, 125 years later, Hutson has lit the cold embers and stoked the pristine fires of bias and intolerance. All because of an American flag placed on a Confederate veteran's grave.
In every war with a foreign enemy, our American flag has been bathed in the blood, sweat, and tears of our boys of the Southland, who carried it the last mile, many making the supreme sacrifice.
In cemeteries throughout the South, the "gray" and the "blue" sleep side by side under a canopy of green; and for many years that noble organization, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, placed markers and flowers on the graves of both Confederate and federal veterans.
The American flag is a symbol of liberty, justice, equality and tolerance for all whom it represents, regardless of background, habitat, status or creed. We lovers of country and countrymen wonder how any citizen of our democratic republic can harbor rancor toward a countryman because destiny put him adversely on "the wrong side."
JULIAN P. ELMORE\ NEW CASTLE
by CNB