Editor, The Herald:

Angus McClellan’s column (“Crusade Against Confederate Flag Is Latest Chapter In A Long Saga,” Friday, July 17) is an interesting read. And while I may agree and sympathize with much of his view, I am compelled to clear up some rather provocative thoughts included therein.

Personally, I can’t say enough about how tired I am of listening to activist progressives who want to change history to satisfy their own agenda. And I will never sympathize with those who would tread on Southern history, or who would mock, belittle and make light of the struggles of those individuals who enlisted and fought for the armies of the South during the War Between the States. Their purpose, and the history behind all of it, is as much American as any other part of our great history.

I want to make Mr. McClellan aware that all of this, having been said, is coming from a Northerner — a transplant, one of those darned Yankees who came to Virginia for a visit and decided to stay. I’m not alone. There are many more like me, both here and up North.

It’s not a North/South thing that is affecting the good citizens of our country. Rather it’s political.  It is an activist thing, brought about by the so-called “Progressive” movement — a movement meant to destroy the U.S. Constitution and the institution that made it the rule of law in our country.

It’s been going on for years, and an objective in that movement is to divide the rest of us into fighting classes. You can see it clearly in the way we are being administered by Washington today as well as in the chambers of our lawmakers. We are being pitted against one another. Verbal wars are being fought in economic, cultural, religious and racial groups of people — and it’s worse today that it was even 10 years ago.

Saul Alinsky was a University of Chicago professor bent on bringing about radical change in the United States. He wrote a book called “Rules for Radicals.” Some of the most prominent of our current political leadership (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others) were students of his and/or his philosophies, and it appears they are using his book and what they were taught by him to create much of the chaos we witness today.

The simple truth is, if we don’t work together to bring all of this into the light and elect sound leadership to help us manage our situation, it won’t matter whose flag someone wants to fly in their back yard or even in their own home. Some government ruler will tell us what flag to fly, and those who refuse will be dealt with accordingly.

Look to history and understand that America’s greatness comes from only one direction, and that direction is that we are a republic — a government of people, governed by the people, for the benefit of the people. We elect folks to, orderly and systematically, manage our public affairs, money supplies and borders, not to rule over us.  When those people begin ruling instead of representing us, we are no longer a republic, and that is a whole other subject.

Peter Kapuscinski

Dillwyn