A few local racists were featured in the Washington Post for flying Confederate Flags with pride.
Greg Cler, former Mayor of Tolono, claims in the article that he wasn’t “represented” by the Obama administration because he is white.
Brent Lowe flies the flag “daily”, and claims it is an “act of rebellion”.
Both racists, who live in Tolono, seem to want to “redefine” the use of the flag. But these neighbors of ours fail to understand the flag’s history as a symbol of treason, as the banner of wealthy white enslavers who literally tried to create their own country so they could maintain the system of chattel slavery. Conversely, perhaps they do see it as something that points to a time before black and brown people “took advantage of the system” as Cler says — because whites were building the system off of the physical, emotional, and spiritual labors of black and brown people.
Maybe these men aren’t interested in redefining the use of the flag. Maybe they’re actually interested in getting back to its true meaning.