To the Editor:

According to a letter to the editor in the Blue Mountain Eagle on Aug. 23, celebrating and honoring a symbol of our history is now racist and depicts white supremacy? The Confederate flag is part of our history. During the Civil War, men fought and died for what they believed in and both Confederate and U.S. flags were flown during confrontations. Perhaps the individual objecting to the presence of the Confederate flag during a parade would also consider the American flag as racist? Both blacks and whites fought and died — who was the racist here? Blacks had black slaves — who were the racists or white supremacist here? Do their headstones of north and south Civil War soldiers lend credence to racism? Tobacco is racist. Cotton is racist. Sugar cane is racist. All were part of the history of the South, and the list goes on. Perhaps that individual who allowed racism to raise its ugly head within our county should return to the liberal world that spawned him and take his message of hate with him. I did not realize that hired liberal extremists were inhabiting our small, rural communities and seek to infect other inhabitants with their hypocrisy. Grant County does not need this sort of herniated intellect or philistine predilections visited upon us. By the way, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that burning and desecration of the American flag, once a punishable crime under Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 33, 700, was now freedom of speech. However, Oregon Revised Statute 166.075 still holds that abuse of the flag is a crime. Don’t you suppose honoring the Confederate flag, a proud symbol of American history, deserves equal consideration? Early in American history, white Irish indentured servants, who were virtually slaves, outnumbered black slaves and endured worse treatment at the hands of their masters. Perhaps we should be eyeing shamrocks, the color green, blarney stones, redheads and Irish whiskey for brainless destruction — and ignorance and hypocrisy continues unabated.

Judy Kerr

Canyon City