By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

The debate over what the symbol means and who gets to define that meaning has been waged for decades. The issues surrounding the flag are as complex as they are emotionally charged. The arguments some proponents of the flag make are varied, intellectually sound and mature and, if the flag flapped in a vacuum, convincing.

"It's been used in racist ways, but no symbol has one meaning," said John Coski, author of the book "The Confederate Battle Flag – America's Most Embattled Emblem" and a historian at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va.

The essential argument of flag proponents is summed up on popular bumper stickers – "it's heritage, not hatred." Some people see the flag as a way to honor deceased Confederate soldiers or relatives who stood up for a cause they believed was just. Others view the flag as a symbol of regional pride.

They point out that the flag was not the official flag of the Confederacy (it was a battle flag) and was never meant to symbolize oppression or racism.

"Because the symbol has been used [in] racist, segregationist ways does not mean everyone used it that way," Coski said.

That came during the 20th century when the Ku Klux Klan and less violent pro-separation groups used it. But, proponents argue, just because the flag was hijacked doesn't mean the hijackers should be allowed to define it.

"They argue, 'It's been co-opted but why should we cede the flag?'" said Coski, who wrote a dispassionate, heavily researched and evenhanded book. "The Ku Klux Klan has used the American flag and the Christian cross for far, far longer."

Houston agrees with this assessment, as most thinking people should.

"It is possible that to some it is a symbol of just regional pride, pride in history and devoid of the negative history of slavery and lynchings," she said.

But as noble as that may be, I don't believe that is the true goal of people waving it at a stock car race. At a Confederate memorial or grave site? Sure. But at a sporting event?

Moreover, while the history is clear, so too, for most, is the present. A symbol does not get to define itself; society's oft-changing reaction to it determines that.

The swastika has been used for 3,000 years in cultures as different as China, India, Japan and Europe. Its literal meaning in ancient Sanskrit comes from the words "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and the suffix "ka."

But once Adolph Hitler's **** political party in Germany seized it as a symbol in the 1920s and went on to wage the Holocaust on Jews, it changed. In no way can anyone argue it still means "to be good." Its original intent no longer matters.

The same applies for the Confederate flag.

"The people who love the flag have to understand the negative connotation is not made up, they are based on historical uses," Coski said. "Not just by the Klan but ordinary Southerners who used it just as blacks perceive they do. People who love the flag have to be honest about it."