The Confederate flag and monuments are as American as the US flag and monuments. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers gave their lives to perpetuate the ideals achieved by their ancestors in the American Revolution from people who sought to destroy the tenets of the US Constitution upon which the nation was founded. The North fought so that corporations and banks could rule and prosper, for sweatshops to abound, and to maintain the federal treasury with proceeds from taxes and tariffs on the South. The statues were erected for the purpose of reconciliation and to protect the good name of the Confederate soldier and not to insult as you wrongly proclaim. The Confederate soldier should be honored everywhere, especially where monuments are placed on ground he was asked to defend with his life.