This song runs through my mind as I read about the Charleston tragedy, nine souls gathered to practice their right to worship, only to have that right silenced by a man who lived his life in hatred fueled by rhetoric, outdated thinking and a grave misunderstanding of what it means to be born and bred in the modern South.

Is it a hymn? No. It's probably more an anthem, a mantra of life in the new South, how for many of us born here, educated here and living here it isn't about the monuments, the cannons, those battlefields and that flag.

Those of us who don't pay homage to that war between the blue and gray are the ones caught in the middle of a battle to prove we have moved on and are trying to carve out our own idea of what our Southern heritage and legacy should be.

Ain't about no hatred, better raise a glass. It's a little about some rebels but it ain't about the past. Ain't about no foolish pride, ain't about no flag. Hate's the only thing that my truck would want to drag

Heritage not Hate has been bandied about in the days following the Charleston church massacre. What their heritage is, my heritage isn't. I heard the hate speak from my father and have always had trouble accepting that while still loving the hard-working man he was. I still hear the hate speak. It seems it spreads from one generation to the next.

I decided to go my own way in my thinking and life, looking not to those generals who led charges on bloody battlefields in the fight for state rights which slavery played a part.

In the post-war South I believe there are more trying to find a new legacy than those clinging to those old ways.

The Drive-by Truckers in the song from which I quote sing “proud of the glory, stare down the shame — duality of the Southern thing.”

The point I differ on is I'm not proud of the glory and I'm all too aware of the shame — the apartheid practiced in this country for decades, especially in my beloved South, and how some like the young man who killed nine people would like to see that horrible system remain in place and see one race of people shamed into being less than human.

Ain't no plantations in my family tree. Did not believe in slavery, thought that all men should be free

Now, in the wake of the travesty, we're seeing the return of the rhetoric, the debate over that flag, officially the battle flag of Northern Virginia, and whether it is indeed a symbol of hatred and racial oppression.

The swastika through many, many centuries was considered a symbol of good luck and prosperity. What does it mean now? In post-World War II what group has hijacked it?

I heard the story as it was passed down about guts and glory and rebel stands. Four generations, a whole lot has changed — Robert E. Lee, Martin Luther King

All I can say is looking at the photos of the young man, his idea of Southern heritage is not mine. He wore the symbols of pro-Apartheid Africa and apparently, through news accounts, maintained a website called lastrhodesian.com.

Things get hijacked and while their original use may have been for innocent purposes, identification of a battalion in that war, they take on different meanings in the wrong hands.

Fly your flags on your private property.

It's certainly your right to do so, just as it was the right of nine people to assemble and worship at a historic church in South Carolina, their sanctuary and shelter.

Don't, however, try to convince me it's a past I should honor because I see a new and better South emerging.

We've come a long way rising from the flame. Stay out the way of the Southern thing

We have come a long way, some of the finest universities this country has to offer, some of the greatest literary voices have risen from our fertile soils and some of the best leaders to patch the holes left by our nation's intolerance were born here. We have music, we have food, we have a slower pace that maybe offers us time to ponder what our legacy should be.

Unfortunately, the killing of nine people coming together in a spirit of prayer, even welcoming the man who brought upon their demise opens up that debate again, about that duality and conflict.

If you look at it with eyes wide open there is no debate — the wearing of pro-Apartheid patches, venerating the former ruling class in South Africa, using a historical battle flag as a symbol of hatred cannot be any enlightened person's heritage? It's not the heritage I choose to honor.

There's no defense for what this young man did and you certainly can't cry the Heritage Not Hate cliche in this case. It's not part of the South I have grown up in, but even now there is a certain duality that haunts those of us who refuse to honor the symbols of bygone battles — Lance Martin