Some Arkansas people will rally today in Russellville behind the Confederate flag.
They say they're doing it in defense of Southern heritage.
We'll see how that works out.
Note that an organizer of the event said beforehand that racial slurs or offensive language will not be tolerated. The rally has no basis in racism, he said, and is a food drive for a local mission.
That comment alone suggests some who may be drawn to the event are expected to have something more on their minds than honoring their Southern heritage.
A lot depends, of course, on how you define Southern heritage.
It is not, or at least it should not be, defined only by the slave-holding practices of our ancestors or by the Civil War they fought to preserve that culture.
That is, to be sure, a large part of Southern history and those old times in Dixie should not be forgotten.
Nor should the old times be celebrated, which is how some of this recent Rebel-flag waving comes off.
It is possible to honor your heritage without supporting that horrible institution for which your ancestors fought to preserve and without tolerating the inhumanity that survives in today's American culture.
The recent murders in that South Carolina church, allegedly committed by a Rebel flag-waving racist, have caused many in this country to put the Confederate flag in its place -- in history, not at the center of flag-waving celebration.
Major corporations, Walmart among them, are removing Confederate merchandise from their shelves. Some online merchants are no longer offering the flags or other paraphernalia for sale.
It is, as President Obama said recently, a small but meaningful gesture to those to whom the Confederate battle flag represents racism and hatred.
Over 45 years ago, the University of Arkansas made a similar gesture when the university's band stopped playing "Dixie."
The popular tune would bring fans roaring to their feet at football games and other sporting events. It was the UA's fight song back then and many of those who sang it weren't thinking of it as being racially charged -- until they did.
Credit black students on campus in 1969 with bringing the issue to broader attention, as they protested the continued use of the song. It was a huge controversy that triggered strong feelings on campus and out in the state.
Student leaders called for the band to stop playing "Dixie" and the university president at the time left the decision to the band director, according to an account in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
"Conditions on campus turned violent when, on December 5, the night before the famed Razorback game against the University of Texas -- a game attended by Richard Nixon and other national figures -- a black student, Darrell Brown, was shot in the leg in a drive-by shooting. The band director agreed to stop playing "Dixie."
By today's standards, that might not seem so violent. But it was an awakening then, not just for that band director but for many in the Fayetteville community and beyond.
It was time to lay "Dixie" down, to resign the song to history.
Razorback sports certainly haven't suffered from its loss. Fans are as rabid as ever, as pumped to hear the band strike up other, now-familiar tunes that don't carry the kind of baggage "Dixie" did for some, although not for all UA supporters.
People in Fort Smith are going through some of the same struggles today that the UA campus faced in 1969.
Fort Smith's Southside High School has a Rebel mascot and uses "Dixie" as its fight song and has since it opened in 1963,
But the local school board is pushing to retire both, just as it long ago removed the Confederate flag from gym floors and school uniforms.
Hundreds have signed a petition to keep the old traditions while others support the board's move to phase them out.
The board has discussed banning "Dixie" for the 2015-16 school year and following with the mascot change in 2016-17.
Removal of the mascot from uniforms, gym floors, scoreboards and stadium signs will take more time and cost money, but the song could be stopped immediately.
A final vote should come later this month.
Meanwhile, debate will continue there and in places like Russellville, where some insist on celebrating their Southern heritage with a wave of the Confederate flag.
Commentary on 07/05/2015