Laura Fralich

As Memorial Day approaches, we honor those who have died for the freedoms that we as Americans enjoy every day.

Current world politics shows us that democracy is fragile and should not be taken for granted anywhere. Many people throughout our history have fought for this freedom, including many people in my family, and I am forever grateful for that.

When we look back and honor those who have given their lives and stood up for freedom, equality, and democracy, Confederate soldiers were not fighting for those ideals but rather for the opposite — to keep Black people in bondage and uphold the institution of slavery which treated them as property on par with livestock.

The Confederate flag today still represents those ideals and promotes values antithetical to democracy.

Unfortunately, it is still visible even in our small town of New Gloucester in our annual Memorial Day parade, coming up this weekend. The flag carries with it divisive ideas of history, identity, rebellion, heritage, exclusion, discrimination and hate.

For some, it has come to represent an historical and geographic identity, albeit one that is rooted in an ideology of hate. For others, it represents racism, violence, and the most shameful era of American history.

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One thing is for certain, however, it is not a neutral symbol and it cannot be viewed that way.

Symbols, like words, hold immense power. It is essential for the person promoting a symbol to take accountability for all of the ways that that symbol is being interpreted and the emotions that it evokes in others. If you fly the Confederate flag, you are making the choice to promote a symbol of white supremacy and to glorify an historical rebellion in favor of slavery. To deny these associations is to ignore the realities of our current world, as well as our nation’s past.

The Confederate flag has long been used by white supremacy groups to promote their ideology and has accompanied atrocious acts of hate. The Ku Klux Klan has flown it at lynchings, and it has been waved by angry mobs opposing school integration. More recently it was seen in a picture of Dylan Roof that came out after he murdered nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, and at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In Maine, to fly the Confederate flag under the guise of heritage and history is an ill-informed argument in a state that fought against the confederacy. Specifically, the Confederate re-enactors participating in the New Gloucester Memorial Day parade are from the 15th Alabama regiment that fought against the 20th Maine regiment at Gettysburg.

Additionally, to relegate issues of racism to the south ignores our own state’s problematic history: our disenfranchisement of African Americans and the racism in our policies, institutions, and culture.

The KKK has a long history in Maine; as recently as 2017, recruitment fliers were sent to houses in Freeport and Augusta. The group’s membership and visibility have gone in waves over the years in Maine, but in 1924 there were a staggering 40,000 members of the KKK in Maine, and they were pivotal in electing Gov. Ralph Brewster.

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There have been rallies as recently as 1988 in South Portland and Rumford.

While it is easy to point to the explicit racism of hate groups like the KKK, the legacy of racism is pervasive in many institutions in our state and can be seen in current statistics. A study at the beginning of the pandemic exposed the appalling fact that Maine had the nation’s largest racial disparity in COVID-19 cases, with Black communities contracting the virus at 20 times the rate of white communities in our state.

In Maine’s schools, Black students continue to speak out against the racist abuse and harassment that they are subjected to, as well as the inaction of school administrations. In addition, the recent protests against police brutality have highlighted the fact that in cities across the state, Black people are two to four times more likely to be arrested by police than white people.

On this Memorial Day, we are honoring all of those brave Americans who have fought and given their lives to further the cause of freedom, democracy and equality. We would never consider flying a Nazi or Vietcong flag; why would we fly a flag used by traitors and rebels to the United States who were fighting to preserve an institution antithetical to our democratic ideals?

We must reject the Confederate flag and the racism and violence that is entrenched in its history. We must call for the removal of these symbols in our town if we are going to promote ourselves as a welcoming and inclusive community.

Laura Fralich of New Gloucester is a high school social studies teacher and member of the Facebook group New Gloucester United Against Racism.


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