When I was growing up in New York and Ohio, I was taught the flag that hung over the South during the War Between the States was called the Southern Cross. Today, to the politically misinformed (do they really consider themselves politically correct?), that flag is called the Confederate Battle Flag.

In 1994, I was offered a transfer from Ford Cleveland Engine Plant #1 to Lorain, Ohio, Walton Hills, Ohio, Dearborn, Mich., or Atlanta, Ga. Since my mother didn't raise any fools, I took Atlanta. Given the choice, what would you choose?

Yes, I am a “Damn Yankee” and proud of it. There's no way I'd go back; I love it here! As a Yankee, I was taught that the Southern Cross stood for a gracious, proud, respectful, and hospitable part of the country.

I can't remember one lesson in any of the public schools and colleges that I attended that told me that great symbol of the South stood for battle. It meant preserving the Southern way of life.

Maybe, in a minor way, that meant keeping the slaves to help the wealthy plantation owners, but the plantation owners were by no stretch of the imagination the majority of the Southern people. The South was poor, for the most part, rural, and agricultural while the North was rich and industrial.

As I watch The History Channel, I'm told that the main reason the North won the war was because they controlled that industry and could therefore keep the South from getting additional munitions.

I have never owned a slave and I'm more than 99-percent sure that no one now alive in this great state has ever owned a slave either. My state flag has the Southern Cross proudly displayed. That Southern Cross stands for a gracious, proud, respectful and hospitable state that invites all people to come, see and experience our Southern charm.

Our people are as warm as our summers; don't destroy a symbol of who we are.

John M. Romph

Fayetteville

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