First of all, if this isn’t copypasta, big respect for typing this out.
I sense a lot of fucked up things in your story. Like your teacher, turning war, slavery and suffering into a game. Your dad, giving up on explaining the implications of hanging the flag in the house. Your highschool encouraging a cultish behavior… The physical piece of cloth was just an artefact cought up in the middle.
While I understand the power of symbols, and their ability to subconciously influence people, by burning the symbols we don’t solve the underlying problems. We just hide them.
Meanwhile, violent extremists are still among us, and are able to unite under the picture of a frog, or an italian hand gesture…
The statues shouldn’t be just left alone. They should be put into a proper context, so they become a memento, instead of a shrine.