Sam Obar 180

I attended the Walpole Rebel football game today, and saw only one Confederate flag, located on private property behind the stands. Walpole High School principal Alan Bernstein, who recently announced he was resigning at the end of the year, told me that the school will try to put something in front of the flag to obstruct it somehow, but given that it is located on private property, their powers are limited in trying to remove or cover it.

The flag is on private property, but clearly visible from the field and bleachers. I even walked around to the other side of the field, and I still had an unobstructed view of it.

Here is a picture of the scene at the game today, with the flag at the right:

To the property owner who has put this flag up: This is why some of us are opposed to the Rebel mascot. I would not be opposed to the Rebel mascot if you and others did not wave these flags. Because you have demonstrated arrogance and disregard for the history of America in displaying this, you are embarrassing Walpole and (inadvertently) showing that we support the flawed ideals that the Confederate states stood for during the Civil War.

A word of thanks should go to school administrators for making an announcement at the beginning of the game for the entire crowd to hear, requesting that Confederate paraphernelia not be displayed. Additionally, an apology was issued over the loudspeaker to any citizen who is offended by Confederate flags being used by private citizens, I assume in reference to the Confederate flag pictured above.

Unfortunately, this one flag may prompt others connected to the high school community to believe that they too can bring Confederate flags to games at Turco Field. Hopefully that will not occur.

Photo above is a crop from Michael Amaral from a Greg Salvatore photo.

Now that it has been established that people DO bring Confederate flags to Walpole High football games, as evidenced by legendary retired Rebel Coach John Lee, it appears that the WalpoleWords forum is now abuzz with some discussion about whether or not it is appropriate to be bringing Confederate paraphernalia to Walpole sporting events. I have said multiple times that waving Confederate flags at football games is embarrassing and not a good way to represent our town.

Coach Lee, an alumnus of the University of Memphis, is the one who caused the innocent Walpole Rebel mascot to be connected to the Confederacy, when the media called his football team “General Lee’s Rebels”. He encouraged students to bring Confederate flags to football games and to sing “Dixie”, not bothering to do the right thing. And here he is, in 2009, still showing off the Confederate flag. Check out my history of the Walpole Rebel.

I have also been tipped off by friends at Walpole High that Confederate flags are making a comeback at Walpole home football games. I plan to go to the next game at Turco Field with a camera to take pictures of every Confederate Flag I observe. I will post pictures on this blog.

Another friend informed me that other towns’ football teams often motivate their black players before playing against Walpole by telling them that Walpole “hates them”, indicated by the Confederate flags. How incredibly unfortunate.

The Rebel is offensive, and the Confederate flag is an incredibly bad representation of our town. The Rebel mascot is an issue that needs to be addressed now.

Please remember to check out my initial opinion about the Rebel mascot.

More thoughts on the Rebel issue…

Over the past few months, I have been observing the WalpoleWords forum and reading the various opinions about the Rebel mascot. While I have largely tried to stay out of the discussion, I now have an even greater understanding of what the Rebel proponents are using as their main arguments against changing the name.

First, although I respect those who argue that the Rebel mascot is perfectly acceptable in Walpole, I do not have any respect for those who do not stand up for themselves and do not put their own name on what they believe in. Unfortunately, due to the anonymity WalpoleWords provides, there are many who have stated their opinion on both sides of this issue without ever identifying themselves. The few who do, like Mike Amaral and myself, end up getting trashed simply because we spoke up about an issue we believe in very strongly and didn’t hide behind the veil of the internet while doing it. Please stand up for what you believe and post your name when possible. (I appreciate those that already have).

Regarding the greater issue we are discussing here, it surprises me that Walpole, which supposedly prides itself on being “The Friendly Town”, would show so much resistance towards changing the name of mascot that is so divisive and unfriendly. It is natural for Walpole residents to be proud of their town, as any town’s residents would be. But what it is remarkable is the fact that Walpole residents appear to be unwilling to look outside the box on this issue and recognize that the Rebel and Confederate flag is deeply offensive to many people, and besides that, it has a very heavy negative impact on our town’s reputation. I think we can all agree that waving Confederate flags in the stands of Gillette Stadium during the Superbowl is certainly not the best way to represent our town.

To me, the Confederate flag shows out-of-towners that Walpole needs a history lesson. The fact is, the Rebels lost the Civil War because they sought to destroy the Union and maintain slavery. Walpole, as a town, sent many soldiers to fight against the Rebels during the Civil War. Several died. Abraham Lincoln’s war agenda was to keep the Union together, and although he still saw African Americans as the inferior race, he was simply echoing the feelings many people in that era had of African Americans (so please stop using his quotes to justify the Rebel cause).

Our town has a reputation to uphold. We are not necessarily “bowing to the politically correct police” or “giving in” by changing the name. In reality, we are showing the world that Walpole does not condone the Confederates or what they stood for. There are some who have argued that the Rebel mascot can also be connected to the Rebels during the Revolutionary War, but when we wave Confederate flags, and proudly display a “gun-totin Reb” on the sign on our front lawn, I don’t see how this connection can be made.

I have spoken to many people on this issue, living both in Walpole and out of town. Most have told me they agree with me, but for obvious reasons they do not step forward and speak up. My guess is that there is a silent majority of people in Walpole who do not feel the Rebel is appropriate.

While it is certainly true that most Walpole High students are fine with the Rebel mascot, I am willing to bet that most will quickly give up the mascot once they fully comprehend its negative connotations and work together to come up with a new mascot.

It is time that Walpole ends the sharp division that has resulted from years of debate about this controversial mascot. There are some who have said that the Rebel actually unifies the community, and is a rallying symbol for our athletes. Unfortunately, the mere fact that people are discussing this right now shows that there is significant division as a direct result of this mascot, and the division started over two decades ago.

I think an independent committee of parents, students, and concerned citizens on both sides of the debate should be organized to look into whether or not it is a good idea to maintain a mascot that is offensive to so many.

My message to Walpole residents who are so unwilling to change the mascot is this: Let it go. I have heard many times the various arguments for keeping this mascot, and I fully understand the points of view. However, a mascot is meant to unify, not divide. This mascot does not unify, no matter what you personally believe. It brings more harm than good to our town’s reputation, and it offends many. The Rebels sought to destroy the Union and maintain slavery. By changing our mascot name, we are showing, and sending a strong message to future generations and people outside of our town, that we believe in diversity and working together to come up with a name that everyone can agree on.

I think the Mavericks is a good name.

As always, remember to check out Mike Amaral’s fascinating blog, and look at some documents related to the Walpole Rebel controversy.

This was edited on March 29, 2009.

In January, America inaugurated its first African American president. For many people across America, the racial barriers had finally fallen, and the stains of the decades-long era when thousands of blacks were prevented from having basic rights had been erased. From the time of the Civil War and lasting well into the 1960s, blacks in the South were intimidated and threatened, and under most circumstances the banner under which this practice occurred and was condoned was the Confederate/Rebel flag. Walpole High School, has, for decades, used this same flag to represent its sports teams, namely its Superbowl-winning football program. But with Barack Obama’s election to the presidency and Deval Patrick’s position as the only African American governor in Massachusetts history, it is clear that Walpole High must end its use of the Rebel flag as a symbol of its athletes.

In late 1993, a 1971 Walpole High School graduate named Mike Amaral re-opened the debate when he wrote a letter to The Walpole Times. “The subject,” he wrote, “is the use of the Confederate flag as a standard to represent Walpole High School and its sports teams. I guess what bothers me is that I still feel as I did 25 years ago […] the Confederate flag represents the symbol of a failed attempt to break with our Union as created by the fathers of this country, and also as the symbol of a state which did not recognize that all men are created equal.” Mr. Amaral’s letter was one of the first ever to address the Rebel debate in the Times, and his efforts to stop Walpole from using the Rebel as a mascot continued into 2006 when he started a blog to discuss the controversy. The responses from the community have been varied - while some agree with him, others either don’t care or disagree with his perspective.

Mr. Amaral’s argument in favor of ending Walpole’s use of the Rebel as a mascot is compelling. While every school certainly has freedom of speech and deserves the opportunity to not be judged by their mascot and associated symbols, using a mascot that is so widely regarded as hateful is not an acceptable school mascot in the twenty-first century. Mr. Amaral feels that by using the Rebel as the name of the school’s mascot and using the Confederate flag to represent the school’s sports teams “mocks Confederate history and Walpole’s own contribution during the Civil War (over 100 soldiers), when squads of Walpole men helped in ‘…Maintaining the Union and Freeing an Oppressed Race…’” Mr. Amaral’s belief is that waving Confederate flags at Walpole sporting events, like at the Division 2 Superbowl in December when Walpole trounced Mansfield, is “embarrassing.” Indeed, a forum thread from 2006 to 2007 on the Boston.com High School Sports section seems to show that for the most part, the Rebel and its Confederate associations are not perceived as appropriate to people outside of Walpole. “You sang Dixie on the field. that is so racist, disrespectful, the north WON by the way, and that is reason enough,” a user with the name “ZeRoJRG” wrote, referring to Walpole’s old custom of playing Dixie, a somewhat offensive song in and of itself, at football games. Another user, named “devannd” wrote “the Rebel flag is a detested and revolting reminder of the ugliness that plagues this country to this day.. Please have more respect for your forefathers and recognize it for what it is.. Racism…sad but true.. you can look it up if you ever have the time…”

Walpole’s sports teams used to be named the Hilltoppers, until 1965, when a contest was held for a new name. The name “Rebels” was chosen, but at first it was not intended to be associated with the Confederacy. In 1968, the Walpole football program had a new coach, John Lee, and the newspapers began referring to the team as “General Lee’s Rebels”, a reference to Robert E. Lee’s leadership of Southern forces during the Civil War. It wasn’t long after that when Walpole students began displaying Confederate flags. In October 1988, a committee from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges visited Walpole High School and observed school operations for the NEASC accreditation process. A few months later, they issued their report and briefly mentioned the confederate flag issue. “Although the football team’s use of the symbol of the confederate flag may not be in the visiting committee’s jurisdiction for evaluation, the committee felt that it should comment. Regardless of how innocently the symbol evolved, or even if the community of Walpole looks upon it as a symbol of pride, spirit, and unity, the use of the confederate flag may be inappropriate due to its historical ramifications,” the report reads. It was soon after this report was published that the Walpole School Committee moved to remove the Confederate flag from athletic uniforms, and ban the use of the flag at sports games. In recent years, however, the ban has not been enforced.

A school mascot is meant to unify not divide. While there are some who may argue that the mascot and its associated flag are only offensive to those who interpret it that way, the fact is that the Rebel flag and its historical use as a hate symbol very simply contrasts the pledge to diversity that Walpole High School seeks to uphold. Even if the members of the football team, many of them black, do not see the flag as personally offensive, there are many in Walpole and in the communities the Rebels play against in sports games that see the flag negatively. Just take it from one former Walpole resident named Edward M. Greene, Jr., who in 1994, wrote his own opinion of the Rebel issue in the Walpole Times. He wrote of his experiences moving into Walpole and seeing the Confederate flags on car license plates. “The Rebel flag has been a symbol of so many other things. For many years, organizations like the Ku Klux Klan have hidden behind the Rebel flag to terrorize men, women, and children, who were of different races, creeds, and colors. They wore the Rebel flag as their badge of hate and violence.” Greene also compared an African American attending Walpole High to a Jewish person attending a school with a swastika as a symbol. “Going to a game where there are many Rebel flags being waved is like walking back into a very unpleasant time in history,” he continued.

It would be best for Walpole, and for the community as a whole, if Walpole did not risk having outside residents see Walpole as hateful, and Mr. Amaral’s argument deserves some attention. And, if nothing else, in the words of Mike Amaral, “Let’s honor our own local Civil War heroes and their history and not use symbols which represented their foe and their attempt to form a state whose philosophy included the breakup of our union and inequality among men.”

For more Rebel literature, and to see copies of Mr. Amaral’s letter, Edward M. Greene’s letter, and the NEASC Committee Report from 1988, visit http://www.samobar.com/rebel/.

Part 1

In late 1993, a little-known 1971 Walpole High School alumnus named Mike Amaral wrote a letter to The Walpole Times. In it, he expressed his concern over an issue that had “bothered” him since his high school years. “The subject,” he wrote, “is the use of the Confederate flag as a standard to represent Walpole High School and its sports teams.”

At the time Amaral was writing the letter, students were in the habit of waving Confederate flags at Walpole sporting events, a practice that still goes on today. “I guess what bothers me is that I still feel as I did 25 years ago…the Confederate flag represents the symbol of a failed attempt to break with our Union as created by the fathers of this country, and also as the symbol of a state which did not recognize that all men are created equal,” Amaral wrote in his letter. “It was and still is inappropriate to use it as the logo for a public school such as Walpole High,” he went on.

Amaral, who still feels the way he did when writing this letter, maintains a blog where he tries to lay out the case for changing the name of Walpole’s sports teams to something other than the Rebels. Amaral is passionate about his case, and he writes compelling arguments: “By maintaining the cartoon likeness of a “gun-totin’ Reb” on the stone on the high school lawn and calling it’s mascot “Rebels”, all the while saying “we don’t wave the Confederate flag” when in fact that is the roots of the Rebel name in Walpole, mocks Confederate history and Walpole’s own contribution during the Civil War, when squads of Walpole men helped in ‘…Maintaining the Union and Freeing an Oppressed Race…’.”

At the time Walpole sports teams were first named the Rebels, the name was chosen innocently and without regard or connection to the Confederacy. The “Hilltoppers,” as Walpole sports teams were known, apparently became an old and boring name by 1965, and a contest was held to determine a new name for Walpole’s athletic program. The term “Rebels” was chosen, and at first no Confederate flags were used as symbols and no Southern references were used in Walpole. However, as Betsie Tarbell Smith, a 1968 Walpole High graduate, recounted in a letter to The Walpole Times in 1994, “the Rebel flag came later when one of the custodians gave one to my friends and me since we were at all the games. It was to promote school spirit, nothing else.”

In 1993, then-Walpole School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Cibotti, told the Walpole school committee that in 1968, when John Lee became head coach of the Walpole High School Football team, “the newspapers started calling the team General Lee’s Rebels and shortly thereafter, the Confederate flag came into use.” Lee, who had previously played football at and coached at the University of Memphis (in the South) brought a Walpole Rebel football team in disarray out of the dust and into glory, going .500 his first year there. Confederate flags were being waved and the song “Dixie” was being performed at sporting events. As the Walpole football team became even more powerful, this continued well into the 1980s.

In 1988, however, a NEASC visiting committee, as part of the 10-year accreditation process, made a visit to Walpole High. Their report indicated they were concerned about the use of the Confederate flag. A quote from their report reads: “Although the football team’s use of the symbol of the Confederate flag may not be in the visiting committee’s jurisdiction for evaluation, the committee felt that it should comment. Regardless of how innocently the symbol evolved, or even if the community of Walpole looks upon it as a symbol of pride, spirit, and unity, the use of the Confederate flag may be inappropriate due to its historical ramifications.” It was it this point that all Confederate symbols were removed from Walpole athletic uniforms and apparel, although apparently Confederate flags still were waved at Walpole sports games, and continue to be waved to this day.

Part 2 will be published on this blog at a later date in the near future.