Mississippi Flag

* Re “Mississippi Votes to Keep Confederate Battle Cross on State’s Flag,” April 18: Mississippi voters say it’s not about hate. It’s about heritage and history. A rich history. Of slavery and lynching. Of honoring men who fought so that they might own another human being. The vote to keep the Confederate battle flag as part of the Mississippi state flag was a vote to continue a heritage of exclusion.

JAY ARONOW

Oxnard

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* Your April 17 article on the Mississippi flag vote focused mainly on the folks here who oppose changing. There are a lot of us who voted to change because it was a Golden Rule issue. We did not prevail, but I think we have started a dialogue that can produce good fruit in the future. We may be rednecks, but we don’t all live in the past or hate our African American neighbors and fellow citizens.

I am a sixth-generation white Mississippian whose family has farmed here since 1833. To my knowledge none of them ever owned slaves. We are working on a new day.

EWIN HENSON

Greenwood, Miss.

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* Your reporter does not know Mississippi. The statement he made about old rusty boats and tar-paper houses does not cut it. What an insult to our great state. Do we have power problems like you in California? I don’t think so. We have a wonderful state. God bless Mississippi.

WARREN CUEVAS

Pass Christian, Miss.