Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean had to defend himself recently over comments about wanting support from people with Confederate flag decals on their trucks.
In Dean's home state of Vermont, Brattleboro Union High School is in the midst of its own controversy about a Confederate mascot.
The Keene Sentinel's Dan Gearino reports.
Vermont is about as far from the old confederacy as possible, both geographically and culturally.
So it?s odd that Brattleboro Union High School?s mascot is the colonel.
It?s a Civil War-era confederate soldier wearing a long coat and broad hat learning on a rifle.
The logo for the school?s teams is similar to one once used at the University of Mississippi.
To round out the odd mix, the football team uses the slogan ?pride of the south,? referring to its location in southern Vermont.
And some students have (reportedly) been bringing Confederate battle flags to sports events.
All of these references to the confederacy may be unintentional.
Or maybe its an attempt at humor.
But some students and teachers aren?t laughing.
They are leading an effort to discard the slogan and the logo and maybe even dump the colonel himself.
Student Matt Cunningham-Cook is helping to lead the charge against the colonel.
Cook3 (13): It?s sort of downplaying the issue of slavery and segregation and the desecration of the African American people by trying to make it as this funny, fun loving mascot.
Besides the mocking of history, Cunningham-Cook considers the symbols insulting.
Cook (12): My mother is African American, my brother is African American and I?m bi-racial, so I feel that it?s sort of a direct affront of my ancestors.
The issue arose last month with a series of local newspaper opinion pieces blasting the colonel.
Talk about the mascot has since become a hot issue in this overwhelmingly white, politically liberal, town.
(student council sound)
The school?s student council weighed in on the issue earlier this month.
Student council president Seth Proctor says the vote followed an animated debate.
Proctor (17): The vote was a question of what our opinion of colonel mascot was. We voted to update or change the mascot to something less offensive. But we would like to see the name colonels kept as it is.
But not all students share the council?s view.
Billis (8): My name is Cody Billis and I think the colonel should stay. And I think the only thing that should change is the slogan because that?s the only thing that?s tying the colonel to the south.
Student Bobby Clay thinks people are making too much of the issue.
Clay (5): My opinion is that the more the issue is pursued about the colonel, it?s just getting blown out of proportion.
A longtime social studies teacher at the school, Tim Kipp, says that the mascot issue is a big deal for both students and faculty.
Kipp3 (13): It?s a very important issue at the school. I?ve been at this school 18 years and I?ve never seen so much dialogue and questioning about it. I know a lot of teachers are dealing with it in their classrooms.
As Kipp sees it, the sides in this debate break into three camps.
One side wants to keep the Colonel.
Another wants to dump the symbol and start anew.
Kipp2 (41) The next one is more of an intermediary step, or compromise, which is keep the name colonels, because that doesn?t seem to really be the issue, but let?s eliminate the image and replace that image with one that is clearly of a northern colonel ? one that leaves no ambiguity.
It?s difficult to pin down exactly how Brattleboro Union High School ended up taking the Colonel?s name and logo.
Student council members say that the name was selected decades ago by a past student council.
As for the logo, Social Studies teacher Tom Kipp says he thinks it was selected out of a catalog by somebody who had no idea of the connection to the University of Mississippi.
Whatever the origin, Cunningham-Cook thinks its time for the colonel to go.
Cook2 (13): I hope that the students and the community decide that this mascot is a racist symbol and it?s the first step toward making BUHS a more anti-racist community and organization.
Administrators at the school have scheduled a non-binding student vote on the future of the colonel for Dec. 15.
After the vote, the Administration will make the final decision on whether the Confederate colonel will survive at Brattleboro Union.
For NHPR News, I?m DG
