And there are still people who wave the flag of the FLQ. In Québec.
Regardless, I'll rescind my point and capitulate. If it is sincerely believed that merely taking down a flag will remove bad blood, then I welcome the attempt, even if I find such a thought foolishly naive.
That's actually news to me. I haven't been through Quebec since I was about 8-9 years old, and while I don't doubt there's some people who use that as a nationalistic symbol, I have never seen it used online in Quebec separatist discussions. That's interesting, and is actually an effective parallel to the whole Confederate battle flag debate.
Anyways, to clarify my stance, I don't think the Confederate battle flag should be banned or abolished, and people should be free to use it as they see fit, but it shouldn't be flown by government entities. Ultimately, it's a controversial symbol that unfortunately is representative of a government and a period of time where many people associate it with slavery. I'm aware that the Confederate States weren't the bad guys, nor was slavery the primary point of the civil war, but it was the larger icon that came out of it. I think terrorist groups like the FLQ can be likened in a similar light to the KKK, where their use of a flag is ultimately with hateful purposes in mind, but they were fringe groups and not official entities, so had it just been the KKK who used the battle flag, I don't think it would have caught public imagination like it has, although it has persisted past emancipation and was still widely flown during segregation. It's a complicated history with a lot of bad blood, and while the flag itself means many things, it still stands as something that was flown proudly during one of the darkest chapters in US history. Maybe, in time, that the flag's persisted and the racist generations are starting to fade into history (although, about half the time I see somebody with a Confederate flag on the internet I expect to see them post something racist, and I'm usually not wrong), society will start to see it more as a symbol of collective Southern pride (like most of its proponents want) and its use under oppressive governments will fade.
Ultimately, I applaud the choices South Carolina and Virginia are making, and I think by shelving official use of the flag will hopefully help the negative stigma of it fade away; the systematic oppression of past governments had that flag flying, so I think it's a good way to say "we're not like that anymore". I would, however, object to outright banning the flag from personal use, because ultimately it's people's freedom to chose to do so and speak up in defense of it, as well as its people's rights to speak against it. I still stand by my original post for what the flag largely represents in public eye and that I personally think a lot of people (particularly here in Alberta who love flying it for whatever fucking reason) are ignorant of what that flag means to a lot of people. Long story short, it's your right to fly the flag, but don't be surprised if a bunch of people automatically assume you're a racist dick hole by default.