Rep. Todd Clodfelter: The Confederate flag isn't racist, and neither am I
The fact is that hundreds of thousands of Southerners took up arms, most of them never having owned a slave, and fought with the specific belief that they were following in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers. Others were resisting an invading army marching into their state, across their farmland and into their towns. Many were just ignorant, young men looking for adventure.
After the North prevailed, the survivors returned home to devastation: their crops burned, homes pillaged and destroyed, livestock slaughtered or scattered; entire cities laid to ruin. My ancestors among them.
-Rep. Todd Clodfelter
Read on:
http://tucson.com/opinion/local/rep-todd-clodfelter-the-confederate-flag-isn-t-racist-and/article_a2f2f626-e1fd-50a8-835f-423caa74da91.html