SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Gala Parade on Saturday had two entries in the lineup that sparked outrage — a monster truck with a Confederate flag painted on the hood and signs calling for a ceasefire in Gaza carried by musicians and dancers.

Responses to that outrage sparked counter-outrage and a fierce debate that’s been building over the past few days. The discussion of these symbols have caused some division in town, online and amongst the Carnival committee, with most people involved feeling wronged in some way and bitter about the experience as harsh words flow all around.

Winter Carnival Committee Chair Rob Russell said he’s called for an emergency executive board meeting on Thursday afternoon to address these issues.

“I can’t really comment much on it until I’m steered in the direction that they want to go in,” he said.

He said he wanted to get out in front of this, but not everybody did.

“My only statement is it’s all on me. I’m the chairperson, so I accept full responsibility for the division in the community right now,” Russell said.

He said he was not privy to anything in the parade until he saw it on the road.

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The flag

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Saranac Lake resident Tom Dupree built a monster truck for the parade — 10-feet-tall, 5-tons and with tons of torque. He said he wanted to bring excitement to the parade. But when the truck roared down Broadway, it received a mixed reaction. It had a Confederate flag painted on the hood.

Dupree said when he bought the truck body, it already had the paint job on it.

“I never gave it a thought,” he said. “I never experienced this stuff, being a ‘northern boy.'”

He said a state trooper who did the paint wrap on the tailgate told him, “I don’t know about the rebel.”

“Should I have thought it out a little bit?” Dupree asked. “I wasn’t really paying attention to be honest.”

He said he did expect some people to be upset by it, but not as many as there has been. Now, he says he’s redoing the hood.

Before the parade ended, conversation about the truck picked up. When photos of it were posted online, debate spread. Hundreds of people weighed in — some supporting it and saying people had no reason to be offended by the flag, some opposing it and saying there’s no reason for the flag to be part of Carnival. Calls and emails were made to the Winter Carnival Committee. The Enterprise has received letters to the editor about it. The Adirondack Diversity Initiative put out a statement saying the flag represents a nation that supported slavery and standing with it today it to stand with the symbol’s “tarnished legacy.”

ADI Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher said seeing the flag in the parade during Black History Month came at the “surprise and dismay of many in the community.” She said it was isolating and ignored the perspectives of others.

The Winter Carnival Committee initially posted two photos of the truck on a Facebook post of photos from the parade. Several people commented, upset by the flag and calling it disgusting.

“So I chime back. You know me,” Dupree said.

Shortly after he replied, he said the photos were gone. He feels he was owed an explanation for this surprise deletion, and wished people called him to talk about it. After he posted about the deletion, more people came to his defense.

“I wasn’t trying to create mass hysteria, but you’ve got to stop this movement of what they’re trying to do here,” Dupree said.

“Go back and research what that flag is all about. Read, read, read,” he said. “Would you just go back and look at the history of the flag? Can we forget about what you think it represents? Because you are wrong.”

Dupree sees the flag’s history beginning with it being the Virginia state flag. He said it was never a “slavery flag.”

“It was long before any slavery was even brought into this,” he said.

The flag becoming the flag of the Confederacy does not change its initial meaning, he felt.

“These young generations are trying to change things around as usual, like everybody else has,” he said.

He believes politicians made it a “symbol of” hate and he thinks that’s ridiculous.

Dupree said he grew up with Black neighbors up the hill from him and that they are still family friends.

“There was never any prejudice on my side. Never have. I was in the military. I was around Black guys. You know. We all carried each other,” Dupree said. “We don’t have the colored much here. But I’ve never seen one that wasn’t welcome. … I’m not one of those guys. Nobody is a racist in my family, my shop, nothing.”

The truck body has the American flag on the side with the word “freedom.” But the lines wrap onto he hood, where they join the Confederate flag, a flag which was adopted by a country which seceded from the United States over a desire to continue slavery, which did not stand for freedom. This led to the bloody Civil War.

Rea-Fisher offered a historical perspective on why the flag is “problematic.”

“The Confederate flag, originally the Virginia battle flag, has become synonymous with hate and violence, notably present at rallies promoting discrimination and insurrections,” Rea-Fisher said in a statement. “Serving as a national symbol of white supremacy, its resurgence in the cultural consciousness post-1915’s ‘The Birth of a Nation’ has contributed to the lasting impact of the Ku Klux Klan, which persists today.

“From an ethical standpoint, aligning with a flag representing a nation that supported enslavement and brutal treatment is inherently wrong,” she added. “Those standing with this flag bear the tarnished legacy of supporting systemic racism, as evidenced by historical and contemporary perspectives.”

Dupree said the flag was not supposed to be a political statement.

He said people asked him to fly a Trump flag on the truck but he didn’t because he knew about the unwritten “no politics” rule.

Lots of people loved the truck, Dupree said, but at least one parade-goer gave them the middle finger and shouted at him.

Dupree said he felt attacked.

“They’re the ones creating the hate,” he said.

Dupree said he created the truck to bring around to events and put a lot of time into it for weeks. So he’s going to redo the hood.

“I’m going to have guys pissed saying I gave in,” he said. “Being who I am and what I am, yeah, I’m changing it.

“Do they win? I guess,” he added. “I am not that guy.”

But he later said it’s not a battle.

“That truck is supposed to be for fun. It’s supposed to be a community truck for events,” Dupree said. “Now that it’s been labeled, it’s hard for me to say ‘I’m a tough guy and, tough. This s*** stays.’ … I’m not that guy. … I will change it just to please, I guess, the history that it now has because somebody picked it to be the ‘symbol of.’ I can’t change that history. I guess it’s time for me to switch gears. … I’ll be the bigger man and change it.”

Dupree guesses the flag hurt the parade atmosphere. He said he didn’t want to hurt anyone, so he’s going to get the hood repainted for future events.

Parade coordinator Jeff Branch said Dupree got a “raw deal.” He did not like that the photos of the truck were removed without discussion among the Carnival committee.

Branch said Dupree had sent him photos of the truck before the parade and the flag never jumped out at him.

“Some people call it heritage. Some people call it racist. I call it a flag,” Branch said, adding that the world has more important problems to worry about.

He also said the flag was not considered political, but rather an opinion.

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The posters

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When Bucket Ruckus and Soma Beats danced to the beat down the road, their buckets carried slogans like “Stop funding genocide,” “Ceasefire now” and “Jews for a free Palestine” and a poem titled “If I Must Die” by Refaat Alareer, who was killed along with many members of his family by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza this December. A large cardboard dragon for the Lunar New Year breathed fire saying “ceasefire.”

By the time they made it down to the Harrietstown Town Hall at the end of the parade route, Branch said he had been getting complaints about the posters.

Kyle Murray, the creator and leader of Bucket Ruckus, said these signs were a last-minute addition made without his knowledge. Some additional marchers in the group had brought signs and a few of the drummers agreed to put them on their buckets. Murray said a few members of the crew who worked with Emily Bell-Dinan, a local artist who helped design the posters, had not told him about including these signs in the parade. They and Bell-Dinan have since apologized to the crew.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t support her, but it is not Bucket Ruckus’ interest to ever take a political position in a parade,” Murray said.

Branch said he confronted the musicians and dancers before they went inside for the Battle of the Bands and told them, “You’re not going up on stage with that.”

Murray said he was standing nearby when Branch approached Bucket Ruckus member Alex Dalley and this was the first time he realized the posters existed.

Dalley said the conversation started at an elevated tone. After Branch told him there’s no politics in the parade, Dalley said he was preparing to unbuckle his rig when Branch ripped a poster off the back of his rig, threw it on the ground and allegedly said “None of this ‘free Palestine’ bulls***.”

Branch said the conversation quickly spiraled downhill into an argument and he ripped a poster off a bucket.

“At that point, him and I got into a little bit of a heated interaction that I am not proud of,” Dalley said.

Murray said Branch insisted Dalley was in support of rapists and murderers. Branch said they told him he supported genocide. They did not put hands on each other, Murray said.

“Was I aggressive? Yeah. I yelled at them. I told them ‘That’s it. You’re done. You won’t be going to the parade again if you’re going to do this. We don’t allow it, this kind of politics.’ And I told them they should know better,” Branch said. “Bottom line, they crossed a line. I probably did, too.”

Murray said Carnival committee member Eric Foster was the “hero of the day” and stood up as “a real leader” by coming over to talk it out and calm Branch down. Murray said Foster told him Bucket Ruckus and Soma Beats could perform.

Murray asked the drummers to remove the posters and they agreed.

“He could have just come and asked us to take the posters off and I feel that all of us would have,” Dalley said.

He had been hesitant at first, but said learning that the signs were made through Jewish Voice for Peace put his mind at ease.

They performed at the Battle of the Bands without the signs.

“It tarnished the day,” Murray said of the confrontation.

He said he was disappointed in Branch. He felt he did not set a good example for the high school band, whose members were watching. Murray felt Branch should have came to him in the first place.

“There’s no rule against politics on parade day,” Murray said. “There’s a very clear guideline for what is acceptable at the parade and, by all means, Alex was in the right to wear that according to the guidelines.”

All politicians and candidates who march in the parade are generally grouped together in one place and all walk together. But Branch said political activism is not allowed in any part of the parade. This has long been an unwritten rule of Carnival — what Branch called “common sense,” but not part of the guideline sheet. Planned Parenthood had a group of marchers in the parade, but he said that was different.

“Planned Parenthood is not a political group,” Branch said.

Of the posters the drummers carried, Branch said: “That is definitely a political statement.”

Bell-Dinan said as a mother, she’s been incredibly upset watching babies, children, mothers and fathers in Gaza being ripped apart by American weapons. And she feels a lot of people are ignoring this.

“It is really inspired by our babies,” she said of the posters. “It was an acknowledgement of this genocide that we’re paying for with American weapons and American dollars and that the vast majority of the American public is against, and the global public is against. … The violence that is occurring that is paid for with our money and supported by our congressperson and our senators and our governor. … It wouldn’t be possible without our support as a nation.

“I don’t think I can put that aside to just enjoy Carnival,” Bell-Dinan added. “Why wouldn’t we say something? It’s the least we can do.”

Bell-Dinan’s family is Jewish. Her husband is Jewish. She previously worked at a Holocaust museum.

“It’s incredibly important to me that education and discussion and understanding about genocides are what prevent more genocides from happening,” she said. “The lack of discussion here has been deeply upsetting to me.”

She wanted to make it visible. She compared this to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the Tri-Lakes area went “all out” for visibility and discussion of the war. She said she’s not seeing that for Gaza.

She was nervous before the parade, but when people were shouting support, she found it refreshing and encouraging.

“To find out that anybody would be angry about calling for the safety and well-being of babies and children was very upsetting,” Bell-Dinan said. “It makes me not want to live here.”

She felt they were making more of an ethical or moral statement by calling for a ceasefire than a political one, asking what is divisive about saying children should live and have food, water and their parents.

“If Winter Carnival is more important than 12,000 kids, then it’s not important to me, I guess,” Bell-Dinan said.

Carnival is very much a part of this the world. As much as its organizers try to separate it from the controversies and horrible events that plague everyday life, they still intersect.

Branch said this intersecting of Carnival and cultural politics gave him flashbacks of the “Fiesta” fight in 2018. The 2018 Carnival theme “Fiesta” sparked controversy and was eventually changed to “Adirondack Festival.”

“It’s really taken all the joy of Carnival out of me,” he said, adding that he’s considering if he’ll continue next year.

“We’ve been 128 years and one of the reasons I believe we’ve lasted this long is because we have always not allowed politics to interfere with our Carnival. And now you have people who feel that it’s the right place for it,” Branch said. “And mark my words, that will be the end of Carnival, when that starts happening more and more.”

The Carnival committee plans to meet Thursday. Planning for the following year’s Winter Carnival typically starts in the weeks after Carnival festivities end.

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A previous version of this article included a misspelling of Tom Dupree’s last name. The Enterprise regrets the errors.