Confederate flag should be taken down in public places

Hello, let me start my debate by recognizing what the confederate flag is, the Confederate flag was used during the civil war to represent the 13 Confederate states. Now for the sake of debate lets analyze what the civil war was, although most people already know what it was. The civil war began April of 1861 and lasted almost 4 years. The civil war was one of the bloodiest wars that America has ever faced with more casualties than any other war that America has ever fought. It was a battle between the North and South, a battle within the walls of our own country. I want to also shine light on why so many people view this flag as “Racist”. So we know that the flag represented the confederate states during the civil war and we know what the civil war was. But why did the war start? Many people believed that anger came about after the election of 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected into office as President of the United States. While many people still debate the civil war’s exact causes, Robert McPherson ( A world-renowned Civil war historian and Pulitzer Prize winner) says that the main cause of this war wasn’t hard to understand, it was caused by the succession of the 13 confederate states because of their disagreement with the federal government’s opposition to slavery. So now we see that the civil war’s two sides were the slave-owning states and the free states. In which the “free states” were represented by American flag and the “slave owning states” were represented by the “rebel”/confederate flag. Which is ultimately why the confederate flag is deemed “racist”. Even if someone wanted to argue that the flag was not “racist”, they still could not deny that the flag represented the side that opposed America during the civil war. I want to reiterate my statement on how the civil war was the bloodiest war America ever fought. Around 1,264,000 American soldiers have died at war across all wars that America has ever fought. 620,000 soldiers alone died in the Civil war. That’s more casualties in one war than in WW2 (405,399 American casualties), WW1 (116,516 American Casualties), Vietnam war(58,209 American Casualties),and the Revolutionary War (25,000 American Casualties) put together. So not only did the flag represent the support of slavery, but it represents when America was at one of its lowest points and was at war with itself. We were so vulnerable as a country at that point and time that we could’ve easily been taken over by an outside force. Why should we glorify and idolize that by flying it on top of capitol buildings or other public places? And my last point is that many people do not completely understand that the Confederate flag is in no way “patriotic” to America. The Confederate flag fought to break away from America. It’s the equivalent to someone in Britain flying an American flag. Its disrespectful. I get so confused when I see people flying a confederate flag next to an American flag off the back of their vehicles and claim it to be “patriotic”. In a nutshell, the confederate states didn’t even want to be a part of America. Meaning that the Confederate flag represents hate and disagreement towards the United States of America. How is that patriotic or anything short of disrespect to the USA? Lastly I would like to recognize that as Americans we have a right to freedom of speech. Yes, we can fly the confederate flag on our front porches and we can idolize it in our own homes and nothing can be said about it because we have the right to do so. However, flying the flag on top of a state capitol building is flat out ridiculous. Period. The confederate flag has no place in today’s government. If people wish to see it in a museum then so be it. American state governments should not be idolizing and flying a symbol that a majority of people consider to be racist, that represents opposition to the American Flag, and overall represents a time of disunity within our nation. Sources: http://www.civilwar.org... http://www.historynet.com...