I'm from Maine, which is the most northern state in the country. With this knowledge, you would expect me to have never seen a symbol of "Southern pride" like the confederate flag. However, the thing is, there are multiple confederate flags waving on different houses throughout my small town. What do these flags symbolize in my neighborhood full of individuals not from the South? My only guess can be that they symbolize hate.

I took a trip to Virginia this past week and it was my longest time in any part of the South since a trip I took in seventh grade. I am a lot more aware of the world now than I was back then, so I wanted to see if the culture really is different down there than back home or in New York where I go to college. I thought it would be particularly interesting to see if there were many more confederate flags waving since I've heard the argument that these represent heritage and not hate.

It turns out that throughout my stay in Virginia, that I didn't see any confederate flags outside. I also didn't see any while driving there in any other states like Delaware or Maryland as I would have expected. Of course I understand that there are most definitely confederate flags being proudly exhibited throughout those states, but I still think that the fact that I did not see a single one, while actively looking for them, is pretty important.

Why do I see more confederate flags in my Northern home town than in the southern states of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware? Why do the people who fly these flags continue defending themselves with a motto of "heritage, not hate?" It's clear that at least in the case of the people in Maine that these flags in no way symbolize heritage. They are a message of intolerance and racism that has no place in the 21st century.