Who even knew that the Confederate flag still flew in the South? I, never having been to the South, was naïve enough to believe that, when the North beat the South in 1865, that that was the end of the Confederate flag. I guess I was wrong. It turns out that the Confederate flag has been flying high in the southern states since the Civil War into present day.  

The Confederate flag should not be flying in the South, in the North or anywhere in this great nation. It is a symbol of division in the United States, and we truly cannot be united if this banner of division is still flying proud. It should not take a mass killing to bring about the change needed to tear down this flag.

To me, allowing this flag to fly symbolizes a lack of patriotism and a simple disregard for everything the United States stands for, seeing as it is the banner of the enemy of the Union (the North). New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia or any of the original 13 colonies no longer fly the British flag. That can be attributed to the victory we as Americans should be very proud of during the Revolutionary War. So why was it acceptable to still fly another enemy flag, that of the Confederate army?

I am not so quick to assume that this lonely flag is the sole reason for the mass execution Dylann Roof committed last week, but it is a strong symbol for what he believed. It’s sad to say such a terrible event is what finally pushed people to remove this flag from the public eye, as if the Civil War was not enough.

For African-Americans in the United States, the flag symbolizes much more than a divided nation: it is the symbol of oppression, and it is an equivalent symbol of the Nazi flag to Jews.

So why have so many states, Republican and Democrat, let this atrocity fly for so many years? The short answer is tradition and history. The southern states feel as if taking down this flag is taking away part of their history. But taking down this flag is not taking away any history; it is just helping to right the wrong that caused our nation to crumble into division.