Jim Raines tells us that the Confederate flag is an American flag (“Don’t Suppress My Confederate Heritage,” Oct. 24).

As it is obviously not a United States flag and he is apparently not using “American” to refer to the American continents, he presumably means that it is a flag that was used by a group of people living within the current borders of the United States, leading to the implication that the British, French, Spanish and Mexican flags are also “American” in the same sense.

This seems difficult to reconcile with his belief that the flags of Mexico, El Salvador, and “Africa” are “foreign trash.” It would be interesting to see how many supporters of the Confederate flag would be ready to defend with equal zealousness the flying of the Mexican flag in the southwest by those looking to honor their Mexican heritage.