The finally lowering of the Battle flag of the Confederacy at the South Carolina Capitol marked a significant change in "Dixie." Those bemoaning the passing of an emblem seen mostly on tattoos, flown by bike gangs, loved by red necks, and totted by racist thinking, was never a symbol of honoring the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. That is a fiction of a way of life that is gone with the wind. That hateful flag went up in South Carolina during the 1960s as a sign of defiance when the South was in the process of desegregation.

The United State won the war against slavery in 1865, but victory over hatred, racism, and resentfulness take more than bullets and Constitutional Amendments. It was a challenge that my part of the United states was not up to. I have the names and records of four of my ancestors who fought in that tragic war. I am named after one of them. I grew up hearing about battles and the "damn Yankees" from people who were born long after those battles. With both politicians and the preachers egging on that tragic conflict and afterwards continuing to support an ignoble cause with Bible quotes and assurances that God was a Confederate, no wonder the lowering of a hateful symbol took so long.

The Rainbow flag embraced by gay people represents not murderous war or hatred for one's fellow men. No one carrying or supporting the rainbow flag slaughters innocent people at prayer in church or cowardly sets fire to places of worship under the cover of darkness. The rainbow flag represents inclusiveness of all people regardless of their color, religion, sexual preference, or birth place.

For the last 25 years on the day of the Pride Parade, New York's Empire State Building marked the event lighting its top (starting with purple in 1990 and moving on to the now iconic colors). What a thrill it was this June to see the White House bathed in those same colors when gay marriage became the law of the land. Everybody loves a rainbow, and when nice people see a rainbow flag, it makes them smile and feel a little gay.