First, let me get this straight before I continue. I am not arguing for the cause of the South or the North. This is about the quality of Martin Bouvier’s Feb. 28 letter, “Southerners shouldn’t have pride.” NOW, point No. 1: In paragraph 15 when he began to berate southerners, calling them, “William Faulkner-reading, Dale Earnhardt-loving” Let me clarify this. Not all Southerners know who these people are. I’m from Texas, and I don’t know William Faulkner, and neither do a lot of my Texan friends. So it is a sign of ignorance to assume this. Second: It is disrespectful to use the late Mr. Earnhardt’s name in such a negative classification of people in a relative location. Third: The Civil War was not just fought over slavery. At the time, the South was the leading (or one of the leading) exporters of cotton to Europe. And slavery, though it being immoral, was a highly efficient way of maximizing profit at home. If slavery wasn’t lucrative, then the South probably would’ve dropped it like a hot potato. Fourth: Sorry to say it, but if it wasn’t for the people of Mexico fighting off the French advances, the Union probably would have lost the Civil War. So to assume that the North could’ve walked into the backyards of Southerners everywhere and just kick butt would also be an error in judgment of the situation. Fifth: There is no gap in the between Northerners and Southerners as far as mental capacity is concerned. After all, “all humans are 99.999 percent the same.”Oh yeah, as far as heritage is concerned, YES, it WAS a symbol of Southern heritage and pride. But after the South lost, and rejoined the Union, the Confederate flag came down and did not resurface for another 100 years. It resurfaced because at the time there was the Civil Rights Movement. And a Supreme Court had just handed down a ruling that learning in “Separate but Equal” institutions was UNCONSTITUTIONAL. So to protest the ruling, the Confederate flag returned — NOT as a reminder of the illustrious Southern heritage, but AS a form of protest against mixing races in schools, and misogyny. Daniel Chamberlain

Freshman

Computer science