So, a symbol that you love deeply and consider sacred has been hijacked by hate.

Well, I know how you feel; the same thing happened to us.

Based on our experience, I'd like to tender a few recommendations.

Lay down the battle. You've already lost. Regardless of what it may or may not mean to you, to others it means hate. Fair or not, to defend it in public now only taints you by association.

Lay off the public display. Honestly, other people find it offensive. Keep it for use in private, where people know what it means—and what it doesn't.

Choose something else for public display. Do your research. You really do have other options here. Inform yourself.

Be patient. If your values are true, time will not diminish them. It may not happen in a lifetime, or two, or three. What is truly sacred cannot be fouled forever.

Where I come from, we have a word: grith. It's an old word, and it means “peace between communities.” Keeping grith is one of our highest values, and if it means that sometimes you don't say exactly what you're thinking, or that you have to alter your behavior for the sake other people's comfort, well, that's an honorable and sacred act, and well worth the doing.

For grith's sake, I ask you: consider what I say.

On October 26, 2015, the University of Mississippi removed the Mississippi state flag, which contains the Confederate Battle Flag in its canton, from its campus. 

In 2001 Mississippians, in a non-binding referendum, overwhelmingly voted to retain the Confederate Battle Flag on the Mississippi state flag.

For more on the Thunder Cross (swastika), click here.