In response “Confederate Flags” and “Flag Has No Place,” which both rain in the July 1-7 issue of North Country This Week, do you or have you ever read history? The confederate flag went through various forms until if finally settled on the “Stars and Bars.” I had ancestors killed during the Civil War by southerners, but to call that flag racist shows ignorance. A majority of southern soldiers didn’t own slaves; they fought under that flag not because of slavery but for what they believed was important. The right to rebel against a government they deemed as dangerous, and a government that attacked them first. There are many whites and blacks in the south who are not offended by this piece of cloth just because it was used wrongly by some wacko in South Carolina doesn’t make it an American swastika. If this is now an issue, an issue about some stupid symbol; then as a Native American I can complain about the “Stars and Stripes” flying overhead as a symbol of racism. It flew over many battlefields where the bodies of native people lay. This is all a distraction from real issues that face people of color.