University of Virginia Library

To The Editor

'Muddied Waters
Of Hypersensitivity'

I would like to join with Mr.
Robert L. Taylor in asking the
editor-in-chief of the C.D. "how he
has the gall to decide that the
Confederate flag has become a
symbol for racism". (CD, Oct. 8,
1970)

I am, admittedly, not as
"mature" as Mr. Taylor since this is
only my first year of graduate
study at Virginia (or of living in the
South for that matter), yet I feel
compelled out of my deep love for
the rational process to, if nothing
else, "underscore" Mr. Taylor's
argument and hope that those at
this university who are endowed
with a greater sense of "maturity"
will out of sympathy, listen.

Who, after reading the history of
the life of Jefferson Davis, isn't
stricken with the overwhelming
sense of dignity and pride that the
Confederate flag so precisely
symbolizes and so accurately
reflects? Who, possessing even the
smallest degree of intelligence and
understanding, would, in the face
of this stirring history, ever dare to
accord this "symbol of pride" to
only the small minority of the Ku
Klux Klan?

And who, after taking into
account the pitifully small membership
of the Klan is not moved to
sympathy for those of us who feel
that the Confederate flag should be
flaunted, displayed and respected
more than it is today? Like Mr.
Taylor — enlightened guardian or
reason and the rational process that
he is — I fail to see how anyone —
black or white — can think that the
Confederate flag is in the least way,
a "bad symbol".

After all, anyone who still finds
"offense" in those things that the
Confederate flag once stood for,
like slavery or a racial double standard
for instance, should leave. In
the name of "reason", how else can
we purify these muddied waters of
hypersensitivity?