I would like to thank Mark LaFlamme (column of June 27) for being a voice of reason in this crazy debate about the Confederate flag.

We feel, as he does, that most of the public are being blinded by carefully constructed rhetoric. People need to blow off the dust from their bookshelves and actually read “1984,” “A Brave New World” and “Animal Farm.” It is absolutely frightening that the world is going the way of government control, altering history and manipulation of the truth.

The truth? Look at the Confederate flag. All it is is the letter “X” laid across 13 stars on a field of blue. It is an act of defiance against the “union” of states, nothing more.

Yes, the South was in favor of slavery, but the flag — just the flag itself — did not have any direct connection with that belief system. It was a symbol of the South, an integral part of American history, and whether or not we are proud of that history, no one should try to erase it.

If we do, we are no better than Big Brother in “1984,” or the antiseptic Utopian fallacy government of “Brave New World.”

Jeff Mayerson, Lewiston