According to Martin Bouvier’s letter in Feb. 28’s opinion section of the Daily, “the Southÿcouldn’t rise again. …”ÿ But unfortunately, the article that Mr. Bouvier was refuting, “The Stars and Bars Forever,” had nothingÿto do with the South seceding from our Federal government.ÿ All Aaron Weiner was stating was the simple fact that most Northerners are ignorant to the fact why the Confederateÿbattleÿflag is flown in the South with pride, and he made a convincing argument for the Southerners’ right to do so and how misrepresentedÿmany Northerners are about the reason why we do so.ÿ However, since the point of slavery was brought up by Mr. Bouvier, I must agree that this was one of the reasons that the CivilÿWar was fought.ÿ Unfortunately, the majority of the Southerners back then didn’t even own any slaves.ÿ Plus, theÿmajor reason that Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation was due to the pressures of his Northern Abolitionistÿsupporters, like Frederick Douglas and such, and not because he was against the issue of slavery.ÿ Also, by this time, a nation was well established, but the balance of power between local, state and federal governments was still in question.ÿ And by outlawing slavery, though I don’t agree with slavery, it presented an issue of just how much right did the federal government have to interfere with the state and its sovereignty to govern themselves and preserve a sense of individualism.ÿ So essentially, it was all about politics and state sovereigntyÿand was not too focused on the issue of slavery, though it was claimed by the North to as justification to declare war upon the South.ÿ ForÿMr. Bouvier to stereotype and slander all of Southerners in his letter is as ignorant as it comes.ÿ In order for Mr. Bouvier to have any legitimate argument or claim to refute Mr. Weiner’sÿopinion,ÿhe must haveÿresided inÿthe South, or else, he is blindly judging something thatÿhe has no knowledge of.ÿ Forÿhim toÿsay that “It is time for our obviously less fortunate and less intelligent Southern brothers to get over it”ÿreveals who really is less intelligent.ÿÿHow can anyone look down upon anyone else upon theÿbasis of where they are from and what they believe in?ÿÿFor Mr. Bouvier to state “woe unto he who chooses death to force his brother to toil like a beast of the fields” for slavery and the South, he forgot to take into account how immigrant labor and their toils were up North. I am terribly disappointedÿthat an ISU alumnus would express such a close minded opinion of an articleÿof an amiable nature.ÿÿIf he had been educated, he wouldÿhave given some thought upon his biased views and thought about it in another view, but as they sayÿ “ignorance is bliss,” and Mr. Bouvier must truly be in heaven.ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿHanjia Wang

Sophomore

Materials engineering