Paper shouldn't use 'derisory' term to describe Battle Flag's supporters

Editor:

The opinion page of The News-Times occasionally reflects a glaring lack of professionalism.

Until you start referring to supporters of consolidation as "consolidators," supporters of Ron Cross as "Crossers," those against consolidation as "anti-consolidators" and those against Ron Cross' chairmanship as "anti-Crossers," you should not be letting your personal disdain for those citizens who express a preference for the Confederate Battle Flag be demonstrated by the derisory "flaggers."

Many folks who support the Confederate Battle Flag are expressing an understandable nostalgia for a flag that they find attractive and a symbol of the courage and bravery of past defenders of the rights of the sovereign state of Georgia. The fact that some supporters of the same flag desecrate its meaning, using it as a symbol of hatred, does not negate our duty to respect the supporters of the flag as a group.

Editorials are supposed to professionally present opinions, not to engage in childish name-calling.

Gene Rickaby, Martinez

(Editor's note: The term "flaggers" is not "derisory," but actually is a self-description by those who assemble and wave flags in opposition to Gov. Sonny Perdue in protests known as "flaggings.")