County Fairs And Confederate Flags
By DAVE LUCAS • 2 HOURS AGO
... some who attended the Margaretville Firemen's Carnival were disturbed by towels bearing the emblem being displayed at souvenir booths. Fairgoer and NYU Professor Daniel J. Walkowitz was offended: he calls the flag 'an objectionable symbol of pro-slavery.'" "I completely recognize the issues around freedom of speech and freedom of expression and I'm actually pretty supportive of that. I would be pretty unhappy I think if I saw Nazi flags and probably would be just as opposed, but I think here the issue is, among other things, that this was an event that was a public event that was being sponsored by for the city. To me that's what really made this a different kind of instance. It's one thing for individuals to decide that on the back of their truck they're going to have a flag or individually on their house they're going to put up a flag that other people may not like or support a political candidate that somebody might not like. And it seems to me, you know, that's a very different matter than something that's publicly sponsored and meant to represent the values of the community" ...
... Cairns quotes Director Norm Kilpatrick, who said regarding Confederate flags at the event: “The more of them, the better.” Here's Cairns: "There were no quotes taken out of context in our original story. I talked later with one of the fair board directors and he indicated that their problem was really with some of the reaction to the story, one of the online news services that picked it up, and some of the comments of people on facebook postings about it."
Meantime, the Ulster County Fair issued a press release saying that Confederate flags are allowed at the event, which was wrapping up Monday. According to the Times Herald-Record, vendors were asked Thursday to keep the flag out of public sight so as not to offend patrons.
Guisela Marroquin, interim director the Lower Hudson Valley Office of the NYCLU weighs in: "Fairs that take pride in supporting respect of all New Yorkers are taking an appropriate stand by requesting that vendors not sell the Confederate flag, which is a symbol of oppression and discrimination that hurts many New Yorkers" ...
http://wamc.org/post/controversy-county-fairs-and-confederate-flags#stream/0
