America's Civil War is still being fought. Mississippi voters will be going to the polls in April to decide the fate of their state flag. Virginia Gov. James Gilmore recently scrapped his state's annual proclamation honoring Confederate History Month. After an emotional debate, the Georgia legislature voted to dramatically shrink the Confederate Stars and Bars, which had dominated the state flag.
In Washington, Interior Secretary Gale Norton was attacked for being insensitive about slavery after criticizing the loss of states' rights during the Civil War. Even more flak was directed at Attorney General John Ashcroft, who praised Southern Partisan magazine for "defending patriots like Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis," all leaders of the rebellious South.
To see any virtue in the Confederacy bothers many. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, complains that "people are still looking to this part of our history as some glorious time."