Flags: try common sense

The Confederate flag, along with the Stars and Stripes, has flown over the graves at Higginsville, Mo., for decades, in honor of 694 Confederate veterans buried at the site. That's right: The flag has been flying over a graveyard that holds the remains of soldiers of the Confederate army. The flagpole at the Higginsville site displayed the United States flag at the top, the Missouri state flag in the middle, and the Confederate flag below that.

At Fort Davidson, also in Missouri, the memorial and display of the Confederate flag honors those who fell in the nearby Battle of Pilot Knob.

Removing the flags in these cases is completely unnecessary and absurd. It's also an affront to the memory of those Missourians who gave their lives in battle during the Civil War.

The Confederacy's use of slaves was an abomination and a stain on our national history. But slavery is not -- and should not be -- the issue here.

The soldiers of the Confederacy may or may not have personally supported slavery. But they were serving bravely, and many died trying to protect their homeland. Their sacrifice deserves to be honored, and having the flag they died for flying over their headstones is a legitimate, respectful way to do so.

This is not the same as a flag flying over the state capital building -- as was the case in South Carolina a couple years ago. That was clearly inappropriate. But at a Civil War memorial/historic site, there is no reason a Confederate flag ought to spark controversy. Someone needs to apply some common sense to the situation.

Politics seems to be creeping in where it has no business doing so. The flags in Missouri are simply part of monuments honoring those who served in a time of war, and to remove them is a ridiculous overreaction that denies the reality of our own history.

The action of the Missouri officials in this case -- and Gephardt's statement -- is unfortunate and wrong.

JB