All history should be taught. I certainly join you in that belief. History is also debated because people (like us) disagree.

As to the substance of your recent column by Robert Graef, you seem to believe we should honor Jefferson Davis, leader of the Confederacy. My opinion is that Benedict Arnold, Timothy McVeigh, and yes, Jefferson Davis, all served in our military — and they all were traitors. It is an insult to our veterans to assert that any one of these people should be honored at all, much less on equal footing to those who fought and died for the freedoms we now enjoy.

After our email exchange — in which I didn’t know you were writing a newspaper column — I thought we had an understanding of each other. A disagreement, but at least an understanding. Press people usually announce themselves and ask questions.

Our disagreement started about a confederate flag in a Marysville school. It was the battle flag, not the national flag, of the Confederacy, and that flag has become the symbol of the KKK and similar white supremacist groups. Placing that flag as equal to the stars and stripes lessens our flag and gives credibility to those hate groups.

My conversation with a school board member was simply to point out the positions of the flags in the display was in equal position, which I am sure violates the Flag Code at least and to wonder why the battle flag, that stirs such passions, was chosen for the display.

After your column appeared I talked to a school board member and learned that the school district already had a policy prohibiting symbols such as the confederate battle flag on school property because of the incident of racial harassment you mentioned. The school district must be consistent for students and for faculty. You were told this recently and still chose to blame the removal on me. I suggested the national flag of the confederacy to the school board member for the display and history lessons

I offer you two ideas to hopefully put this issue to rest. Both require school district action, but we can discuss them.

1) Using the national flag of the Confederacy, instead of the battle flag, and not placing it as an equal to the US flag. That would respect our American flag and advance understanding of history.

2) You and I debate a couple of questions in front of a voluntary student audience to show how history is debated. You think Jefferson Davis should be honored, I don’t. You think the Confederate Battle Flag is the proper flag to be used today to represent the confederacy and I think it has become a symbol used for hate. This would be educational for the students.

The Civil War sadly still being fought in many places. I wish you had been there for the short conversation between me and the school board member and the superintendent.

I think we both ought to let the school district decide what is displayed on their school grounds. You attribute way too much power to me in this situation and I don’t control a newspaper to advance my views.

I do thank you for printing this response to your column and hopefully we can engage in a debate of this issue in the near future. That would be a symbol of what America is about: free and open debate about ideas, history and politics.

Click here to read Bob Graef’s column