Oh boy - I just saw an episode of Nightline that addressed a topic that, I'd imagine, is still a bit of a sore spot for many a Southerner, even 135 years later. It was the continuing controversy about the confederate flag.

I certainly can't speak for all Southerners but from my own viewpoint, this issue sparks emotions that I don't truly understand. It is as if it comes from cellular and genetic memory. It comes from that deep, dark place from whence comes the most passionate - and tangled - of emotions.

The NAACP is calling for a boycott of South Carolina until the confederate flag that flies over the state capital is taken down. They claim that it is nothing more than a symbol of slavery and oppression and while it shouldn't be obliterated completely since it is a piece of history - it shouldn't be shown outside of a museum.

This is where the tangled emotions and feelings come in. I don't see the flag as a symbol of slavery. It is, to me, a symbol of my ancestors' willingness to stand up for what they believed in. There is an old saying, "History is one sided because it is written by the victors." This issue is a good example of that at work.

The seeds for the war were sown in the decade or so before (it began in 1861). From what I've read and studied, I feel that even if the thorny issue of slavery wasn't in the equation there would have still been a conflict despite the fact that the North and South were dependent on each other. The agricultural south was dependent on the factories of the industrial north to process the raw materials they produced and the industrial north was dependent on the raw materials because the rocky terrain wasn't suitable for large scale farming.

What actually sparked the idea of secession from the Union were the export tariffs, designed to protect the profits of northern factories, imposed on southern cotton being shipped to Britain. Add on top of that an economic recession and yearly introductions into congress to raise the tariffs, many a southerner were feeling that they were the subject of a conspiracy.

Don't get me wrong. Slavery did become an issue later in the war but with money in short supply during the recession, many fields were simply abandoned and roads and bridges fell into disrepair. Talk of secession began in South Carolina as a means of getting rid of the 'Tarriff of Abominations' and money flowing again.

Not everyone in the south were pro - slavery. Robert E. Lee himself wrote that slavery as an institution was a moral and political evil. Many a man in the south joined the fight simply because he didn't want the possiblity of his home, land and freedom being taken away by northerners. Others joined because it was simply the right thing to do.

My own ancestry is comprised of civil war veterans and POWs. I can't speak for all of them but at least one - Beverly Newton Fleming - fought because it was the right thing to do to stand up and protect his land, his family and his freedom from 'northern tyranny'.

Does this mean that I don't think that slavery was a bad idea? No - it doesn't. I think the answer to that is obvious. Don't get me wrong - I don't sit around all day, sulking about 'the War'. LOL. It's very hard to put into words - hence the tangled feelings and emotions. What it means is that the scars of this war are still very much evident, even today. They are being passed down, generation by generation. I guess this is a purely Southern thing - even though there are no more survivors of the war and the resultant reconstruction (which in many ways was much worse than the war ever was), we still feel the losses deep down in our bones. In some ways, I suppose the Reconstruction is still going on.