To the Editor:

While I support the display of the Confederate flag or the Ten Commandments as a means of individual personal opinion, neither should be displayed on property we the people own together.

The beginning of the end of the Civil War began on April 19, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant. At that time “all physical possessions of the Confederate army” were also surrendered (including their flag) and all troops became united under one flag. Grant charitably agreed to give back to the Confederates their horses and to feed and supply them. The union of the states was eventually reestablished. The 13th Amendment banning slavery was passed. And most importantly, the 14th Amendment, which reflects what our founders had previously established by the adoption of the godless and, without regard for any scripture, U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

Those did in fact create a secular republic whose primary duty is to equally protect its citizens as well as “all persons” within its borders, as to their naturally inherent or otherwise inalienable rights, of which came not directly from any God, but were inherited from their “creator” — their parents.

This embrace of the deistic notion of a God who created all things great and small never to interfere again, which is by itself a firm basis for separating the church from the state, can be found throughout our founding documents.

But of course there has been a long history of disregard for the 14th Amendment, whereby women and minorities were not considered to be “all persons.” The current Republican Party platform certainly reflects a disregard for a woman’s naturally inherent or otherwise inalienable rights as the result of her birth by denying to any woman under any circumstance her right to the liberty of self-determination by the means of her own conscience.

Again, neither the Ten Command-ments nor the Confederate flag should be displayed on public taxpayer funded property except as individual personal opinion.

Chuck Zimmerman

Waynesville