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OPINION
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- I can't handle that classes start in roughly a month.
  IT'S TOO MUCH!
No really, Frank is SO bad at knifethrowing.
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Strawberry Sour Punch
Straws smell like my
childhood
Don't you hate when you're going to youtube and--Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you!
Bacon pancakes. Making bacon pancakes. Take some bacon and I'll put it in a pancake. Bacon pancakes, that's what it's gonna make. BACON PANCAAAAAKES!
To all PS4 owners, download Rocket League right now if you haven't already. it's free this month. Thank me later.
Why, hello there 90-degree summer weather. I didn't miss you.
KANSAN.COM
Understand controversial subjects before judging
One of the most heated and controversial topics in the headlines right now is the banning of the Confederate flag. Since the shootings in Charleston, S.C., last month, people have argued for the removal of the flag from the state's capitol building and the banning of it entirely, based on its racially-charged history. The flag was removed on Friday, but questions remain about its future in the United States.
As with most things, there are two sides to every story. This also applies to the Confederate flag. To fully understand the flag, its meaning and the connotations that come
along with it, society needs to first educate itself on the history and background of this controversial piece of fabric.
According to New Historian, the flag originally represented Southern pride as well as the history of the South while the United States was split into North Territory and South Territory. It was the flag that stood for the territory the South claimed as its own during the Civil War against the North from 1861 to 1865. However, the Confederate flag wasn't adopted by the Confederate States themselves; it was only the battle flag Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia carried.
In the 20th century post-Civil War, the flag became associated with white supremacists and hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, later becoming controversial and a symbol of slavery and hate. The nation wasn't the culprit of keeping the Confederate flag alive, but these groups were.
It's important to realize what the South seemed to represent during the Civil Rights movement. Although blacks technically had rights under the Constitution, they could not be practiced in the South because of individual state laws. Because the Confederate flag represented the place these conditions took place, it became the unintentional logo of racism.
The Confederate flag would seem to represent different things to the South and its people. However, because the South lost, the flag was never used as an actual public symbol of the region. People might assume it is, but it's a fabric that was once a part of history.
The Confederate flag should be something we look at historically, not fearfully or shamefully. The rules our country had during that time period do not apply to the ones we have now and should not be viewed the same way. Those who have no historical understanding of the Confederate flag and see it simply as a symbol of "Southern pride" not only come across as uneducated but also ignorant.
Issues like this will always be seen as one side against another. The "stars and bars" of the Confederate flag represented many different things at a chaotic time period. At first, it was just a battle flag — a sign of pride, not of racism. It became a supposed signal of prejudice once adopted by hate groups.
Poet William Woodsworth once said, "Life is divided into three terms — that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future."
Some parts of history were not always ideal, but in order to come together as a country, society needs to accept the past and move forward. The Confederate flag should not be banned, nor should it be idolized, but instead seen as how much our country has progressed since 1861.
Jessica Gomez is a senior from Baldwin City studying journalism and global/international studies.
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