Confederate flags are flown on private property in Maine and at Civil War re-enactment events, but this state that fought solidly on the Union side of the war doesn’t fly the flag on any government properties.
While most Maine residents have not become embroiled in the sometimes bitter disputes being played out nationwide over the Confederate flag, there still are people who stand up for their right to fly the flag.
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In fact, as states, organizations, and individuals argued over whether the flag was a racist symbol after the South Carolina church shooting that spurred the debate, one Maine flag store said it saw an increase in the number of requests for a
Confederate flag, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Gorham Flag Center owner Derek Auclair told the newspaper he sold just two Confederate flags since 2012 but after the June 17 South Carolina church murders, he had requests from about a dozen people. However, he can’t sell them because the manufacturers he buys the flags from have stopped making them.
Individuals in Maine stand up for their right to fly the traditional symbol of the South if they want to, and Robert Hersey, of Gray, told the Press Herald he doesn’t think the flag is racist.
"I’ve gotten some looks, but I ignore them," he said of the flag that flies outside his home. "When they pay my taxes they can tell me what to do on my property."
Gas station owner Larry Burke, of Brewer, told the Press Herald the Confederate flag flying outside his store was given to him by someone he served with in Vietnam, and he said customers have been generally supportive.
"What that flag meant to him was that he was happy to be a southerner, it had nothing to do with discrimination,"
Burke told the Bangor Daily News of his friend.
"I’m amazed at the speed with which this flag has been condemned," he told the Press Herald. "The flag is 153 years old. Some degenerate does this horrendous thing and all of a sudden it needs to go. What if (Dylann Roof) had been posing with an American flag?"
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