New Confederate monument in Alabama

At the risk of stirring the pot, but hopefully to generate a civilized discussion....

Sunday, a memorial monument to an unknown Confederate soldier was unveiled near Brantley, Alabama. The monument itself is actually rather tasteful and well-done, and personally I have no problem honoring a soldier who was killed in the Civil War. The problem was, as I see it, that at the ceremony, a Confederate flag was affixed to the platform, and many attendees wore Confederate-flag shirts or waved Confederate flags. In addition, one attendee, a member of the Sons Of Confederate Veterans said, ""It's to let people know that what our ancestors did was not in vain." Another member was quoted as saying, "It's always a good thing when Confederates get together." What the hell does that even mean? The Confederacy has been dead since 1865.

While, again, memorials to war dead are fine, to me there was absolutely no reason for anyone to wave the Confederate flag or have it displayed anywhere at the ceremony, except maybe one, properly folded, atop the monument itself. It seemed to be an almost deliberate attempt to flaunt an item that has been almost universally associated with hate groups in the past 10 years or so, regardless of what it means historically. The fact that the organizers of the ceremony felt it was necessary to have 10 armed members of a local right-wing militia present in case of any trouble also seems to point to the idea that they knew what they were doing was inflammatory.

In addition, I hate to break it to the SOCV member, but that soldier actually did die in vain. He fought on the losing side in a war based on treason and oppression of other human beings. Again, a monument honoring the fact he fought and died on what re-became American soil is fine, but let's be honest ...it's not like he fought for a noble cause.

I guess what I'm asking is, how do you feel about all the rebel flags being there? Was there really any reason for that?