Confederate Flag

Here I may be stepping on toes, but it seems to me that all the bruha about the Confederate flag is somewhat overdone. After all, the stars and strips were used in a slave nation for 99 years, but our current flag seems to not bother anyone. I suppose the question in both cases is: did the nation sufficiently stand for other things besides slavery? I do believe that such a case might be made for both the Federalists and the Confederates. And, of course, so might the opposite viewpoint be taken.

I remember from my history that Robert E. Lee released his slaves at the outbreak of the war, declaring that this war would not be fought over slavery. I also remember Lincoln spending the first two years of the war fighting against the rights of the states to secede before he decided to give the emancipation proclamation. Virginia had signed into the constitution with the provision, that should it decide, it would have the right of secession. Lincoln overruled that right and history has judged him fortuitously.

But is there not a case to be made for the loss of self determination of states? I do think that is the good part of Confederate flag waving.