Posted on 05/26/2010 4:49:23 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
WALPOLE, Mass. -- The Confederate flag is at the center of a growing controversy in Walpole.
The Confederate flag, considered by many to stand for the Old South’s fight for slavery, was the symbol of Walpole sports teams for decades. The football team is still known as the Walpole High School Rebels
The Walpole School board voted in 1994 to do away with the divisive symbol after a 25-year run. “I don’t really like it. I think it should go down,” said Marven Jensimon, who opposes the flag.
Yet the flag is still being displayed on private property right next to the Walpole High School football field. Property owner Joe Finneran says he does not want to remove the flag.
“It’s a whole lot of horse manure… If it bothers some people, too bad,” he said.
Finneran claims a friend asked him to put up the flag at the end of last summer in time for the football season.
“The kids loved it, and they were all having their pictures taken. Hundreds and hundreds of kids were taking photographs with the flag,” he said.
Yearbooks from the late 1960s contain photographs of the Confederate flag, displayed on the sports field and spray-painted on rival Dedham High School as a prank.
Finneran, a member of the class of 1969, was a Rebel football player and went on to serve his country in Vietnam.
“Only I and the Almighty know if there’s an evil in my art. As long as I’m OK with him, let everybody else take a hike,” he said.
Students athletes today largely support the symbol.
“I don’t know. It’s just a symbol, There’s all kinds of symbols out there,” said Judy Feldman, one local woman.
Other teens are passing around a petition to get rid of the flag.
“I think the flag is completely inappropriate. It should not be a symbol for our school. It basically represents racism,” added Ara Nerssessian, who did a project on the flag.
The Walpole school system released a statement acknowledging the flag’s divisiveness.
“The school district makes an announcement prior to athletic events explaining that the flag’s display is not endorsed by the district,” said Superintendent Lincoln Lynch.
A lawyer for the school system who helped draft the statement said there is not much the school can do, because government entities are prohibited by law from abridging a private citizen’s right express himself or herself.
I remember the Walpole uniforms, great teams too. Todd Collins probably wore that uniform. It’s just like a throwback jersey. The guy’s right - screw ‘em.
What part of PRIVATE PROPERTY do the pinheads not understand?
It’s just a flag. Fly it proudly. Never mind the PC idiots.
Since the Brits, Spanierds, Germans, Japanese, Mexicans, etc have been our real enemies in other wars, it would be interesting if the same divisiveness existed with the display of their flags.
Well, right now anyway. ;-)
If it were porn, liberals would tell you to look away. If it is a Confederate Flag, liberals say they can’t look away.
Fly that flag
Go Rebels!
Property Rights
1st amendment Rights???
these rights are only for the ‘right’ people...You know??? the ones on the LEFT.
Wonder what his Freeper screen name is?
The fact that a lawyer had to explain this indicates the school system has much bigger problems. Like teaching civics.
Out of all the things that flag stands for, the race-baiters rip out slavery and trumpet it before the gullible.
America is the least guilty of slavery out of all the world and is responsible for putting an end to it (not that it doesn’t still exist elsewhere).
Like a petition should abrogate his Constitutional rights. The little darlings’ parents are probably proud of them. ack!
Blow it out your tailpipe, Ara. Study this. Twit.
There just added the missing word. Just see the Democrats 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act to understand what started the Civil War. Weird that it's so hidden in modern day history books. It was passed back when the Democrats had a super majority and the Presidency -------
Just curious why a high school in Massachusetts would use the Battle Flag of the C.S.A. as its symbol and calling itself “The Rebels”.
Sort of like a high school in Georgia or South Carolina calling itself “Sherman’s Marchers”.
Wonder what the 14,000 Massachusetts men who died in the Civil War would think of all this?
I heard it through the grapevine
My new neighbor don’t like my big red barn
A ‘47 Ford, bullet holes in the door
Broke down motor in the front yard
I got half a mind to paint a plywood sign
And nail it up on a notty pine tree
Saying I was here first
This is my piece of dirt
And your rambling don’t rattle me
-
Look away, look away, Dixie Land. Nothin' like dem old cotton fields down home in Walpole, home of Massachusetts' largest prison, Massachusetts Correction Institution Cedar Junction, previously known as MCI Walpole, but the locals had them change the name because it hurt property values.
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