Letter to the Editor

You have got to be kidding, right?

Sunday, September 21, 2008

*Reader disappointed with bumper sticker, more

To the Editor:

As you drive through town, you see, if you are like me, a lot of things that bug you or upset you.

In my case, the one thing that I see that gets under my skin isn't the roads in dire need of repair or the empty store fronts in the Forest Park Plaza.

No, while those things need to be addressed, I am not the one to do that.

Instead, I will address something far more ridiculous.

"If I knew this is how it would be, I would have picked my own cotton," said the bumper sticker on a big, dirty pointlessly loud, old pickup truck.

Not only did this truck have the absolute most stupid bumper sticker, it was flying a Confederate flag as well.

Seriously?

I mean, really?

A rebel flag?

Racist bumper stickers?

I won't speak for our small black population in Brazil, but it embarrasses me to be a part of a community where people are so ignorant that they think it's cool to fly that flag without every really knowing what it stands for.

If someone from that time were still alive today, they would probably be embarrassed as well that people with no ties to the south, the Confederacy, or understanding of its beliefs, are flying their flag ignorantly.

The Confederacy was much more than just a pro-slavery view but if you could read at higher than a third-grade level, you would understand that and take the flag down our of respect for people from both the north and south that fought for things that you could never understand.

It's been 150 years since the Civil War and it's time to face facts.

The south lost and regardless of whatever stupid bumper stickers, shirts, hats and other ridiculous items of novelty say, they will not rise again.

In fact, most people with higher than fifth-grade education don't want it to because they realize that just like the flag, the views of the Confederacy are outdated and irrelevant now.

Put the flag in a museum where it belongs and join the rest of us in the year 2008.

Mike Nichols,

Brazil