Flag is not a thing to be worshipped

To the editor:

Clint E. Lacy's letter says, "If slavery is going to be used as an offend-o-meter to decide what symbols can be displayed, then liberal Democrats should be just as offended about the display of the U.S. flag." I view the U.S. flag as a symbol of important and valuable things, things the U.S. claims to value (and sometimes actually does value). However, not being a mystic, I do not hold symbols (such as the flag) as things to be worshiped. For example, I would never seek to offend my countrymen by defiling or destroying the flag of our nation. But, if to do so would prevent one of my countrymen (including our armed forces) from suffering the discomfort of a hangnail, I would burn a whole bale of flags.

I assume that Mr. Lacy was merely using the concept of the U.S. flag to try to impugn the patriotism of liberal Democrats, so I will close by saying that I am glad the South is a part of the U.S., because in just about any measurement of things which go to make this a great nation, the presence of statistics from the South should make anyone proud to be from the North.

The Confederate flag, to me, represents a bygone nation that was willing to go to war to defend the proposition that one human being has the right to use another human being for unpaid and unwilling labor and for unpaid and unwilling sexual relations.

DONN S. MILLER, Tamms, Ill.