To the editor:

My favorite quote regarding meaning making and history comes from historian Jill Lepore. In her book examining historical revisionism during the Obama administration by the Tea Party Movement, she wrote “history is an endlessly interesting argument where evidence is everything and storytelling is everything else.” Historians help us to interpret the past through the arguments they present with the evidence at hand, and all the while filling in the gaps with the most plausible story as they see it. This letter attempts to distinguish some of the symbolism and meaning of the Confederate Flag as was seen adorning a monster truck in the Winter Carnival parade, and how its perceived meaning, regardless of the intentions of the driver, have reverberated through our region.

Regardless of its historical origins, the “stars and bars” of the Confederate Flag have been the recognized symbol of the Confederate States of America for generations. That Confederacy of rebellious states were at the most fundamental level fighting for the preservation of slavery and racial inequality. The Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens in his infamous Cornerstone speech juxtaposed their Confederacy government against the Constitution of the United States saying:

“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

To suggest the Confederate rebellion was simply about “states rights” doesn’t match up with the historical record and plethora of evidence from the time. From the highest offices of the Confederacy, the Southern Rebellion was about slavery and racial inequality.

Flags are never just flags, they’re symbols and carry symbolic meaning with them. Having established that the Confederacy stood for slavery and racial inequality, symbols of the Confederacy too carry with them this heavy legacy of racism and violence. The inclusion of Confederate symbols in celebratory occasions such as Saranac Lake’s Winter Carnival paints our community broadly in a negative light, and one that does not respect or seek to include minority voices. It signifies to people of color visiting and living in our village that our village celebrates and honors those who sought to subjugate them.

I take solace in the conversation that this mistake has sparked. Our village community has stepped into the public sphere to denounce the hateful and racist symbol of the Confederacy as one not welcome in the spirit of Carnival or anytime of year. If we are truly seeking to make Saranac Lake welcoming to all people, we must be intolerant of the racism and intolerance the Confederate Flag represents.

Dwight Stevenson

Saranac Lake