It is one thing to make an error in judgment and then modify future behavior because of new knowledge, and another to make an error in judgment and stay with it protectively, ignoring new information, and continuing on the wrong path. The person may have heard the truth, but acting accordingly would mean accepting a previous perception and a previous judgment based on it was in error and, although it could now be corrected for the future, the person stands firm rather look bad even for a fleeting moment. Sticking to your guns with everyone knowing your error and how wrong you are for the rest of your days is preferable to a moment’s embarrassment and a future of truth.

We see this in the present political climate where a man is being propelled into office or at least candidacy for the sole reason of refusing to acknowledge a previous error in judgment by clamping down on it.

The mettle of a person can be gauged by which track they take.

In an earlier blog I recounted how the Gay Community in Oklahoma City was not only the first Gay contingent to march in any St. Patrick’s Day Parade, but, unlike other cities’ Gay communities throughout the country did not have to ask, petition, or sue to participate because it was invited to.

On the morning of the parade as we “Irished up” the train float with plenty of green and pots of gold at the ends of rainbows, there was to be a Rainbow Pride Flag on a pole in each corner so who we were would be unmistakable, but the person who was in charge of the Pride Flags was a no-show. She had been going through a period of passive-aggressiveness, and because her most recent suggestion had been rejected by the committee, she just did not show up nor would she answer her phone. It was reported by a neighbor that she had been mowing her lawn.

This meant that, as we were bringing the parade float to the parade staging area, passing the large, local weekly flea market and seeing a Pride flag flying along with MIA-POW, Harley- Davidson, and Confederate Flags on poles above a flag vendor booth we had to stop.

It was the usual type of such a booth with flags and banners of many kinds and, with this being Oklahoma, a good mix of pointed conservative political, red-neck style, extreme religious banners, and those that got pretty close to simple, overt racism. With a Pride Flag waving on a pole like the others that represented groups decidedly against it, we assumed the vendors were very brave Gay people in enemy territory, but they were Country boys “all growed up” dressed the part of the red-neck conservatives they were. The Hells Angels, ZZ Top looking guys who manned the booth were surprised when we told them why we needed to purchase four Rainbow flags, and got a good laugh at their own unknowingly flying the Gay Flag along with those others for the years they had that weekly booth.

And no one had said anything.

Weeks later I returned to the flea market because one booth there sold a certain style of shirt I liked, and saw the Rainbow Flag still flying among the others. Curious, I spoke with the vendor who had sold us the flags and he told me that they had simply hung the flag originally because it was colorful and subsequent sails were plenty while having no idea of its meaning. They may have taken some ribbing for it, but business was business, their prices were cheap, and apparently because there was nowhere else to buy a flag unless you went to Dallas or, maybe, Tulsa, as shopping on the internet was not a thing yet, the convenience for the Gay Community meant they were making money. He admitted that none of the Hagreds in levis, plaid shirts, leather vests, with large black leather belts with an oversized belt buckle, larger than normal but smaller than a rodeo prize buckle behind the counter really didn’t liked Gays basically because they were not supposed to. Their first impulse may have been to take the Pride flag down when they learned the meaning, but they had just sold four flags, so it might be good for business, and it was.

They received no flack for the flags.

I have seen flag booths like this at many festivals over the years and they know their customer base so most of the merch is religious, politically conservative, sometime local to the event by, perhaps, having one relevant flag, and are often unaware of the offense their wares may cause in one place because it did not occur in most others. And, because it is a great money maker, Confederate flags always fly on the longest pole.

Saying the words “fairground flag booth” will conjure in everyone’s mind the universal image we all received in Plato’s Cave.

New Bedford is a city of immigrants. They built the city and amassed the wealth that made it at one time the richest city per capita in the country with its whaling and cotton mills, although most were on the low end of the figures that produced the stat.

Massachusetts is a state with strict gun laws and laws on the books against bigotry. New Bedford is in that state and it boasts being the true home of the Abolition Movement with Frederick Douglass getting his start here and with many men signing up for the 54 Regiment that produced Medal of Honor recipient Sargent William Carney, an African American.

For 107 years, the Portuguese have been celebrate their own and the contributions of all the city’s immigrants with its annual Feast of the Sacred Heart, the Festa, the largest Portuguese festival in the country, so it was rather disconcerting to see the classic flag booth at the entrance of the Festa grounds waving a Confederate flag from a tall pole, flags for Trump and Desantis on shorter poles, and American Flags whose red stripes were assault weapon profiles on poles a size between.

The booth was promoting racism and guns at a festival celebrating the very people the confederate flag was against in a state that rejects the foolishness of the Second Amendment revisionists, has laws on the books against racism and actions taken based on it, and had citizens killed by those who fought under that flag to be able to be able to continue to enslave human beings. The is the state that rejected Trump and what he stands for and, locally, threw out the white supremacist, anti-immigrant county sheriff who used his invented threat of imaginary immigrant crime to divide the community and falsely claim to be for the people as opposed for himself and his political cronies.

The contents of the booth which could be proudly displayed in many other places was at a festival to celebrate immigrants and, so, was totally out of place, but in keeping with the nature of such booths. When the booth was set up and the committee did a run-through inspection before opening the grounds to the public, something I know is done as festival organizing was a part of my past, someone should have had the presence of mind to inform them that the Confederate flag, the conservative political flags, and those promoting guns could still be sold, but local standards do not allow the Confederate Flag or the promotion of gun to be displayed so prominently. The DeSantis and Trump flags, although not promoting an ideology or advocating the breaking of local law and community standards, we like our people of color here, most of us are one, were just in bad taste.

This is a nonpolitical, family friendly event with, as the name Feast of the Sacred Heart would imply, a Christ-like under tone. People who have any kind of beef with politicians, individuals, or organization have their say along the parade route but not at the entrance to the fairgrounds through which everyone must pass, having no choice but pass those flags and have to lok at them.

They were the greeters at Walmart that you had to pass and look at on the way in and the way out.

This did not sit well with people and after some complaints were registered, the Confederate flag was removed, the political fags were placed in less conspicuous places while the two gun modified American flags were moved to poles in the back.

Obviously, because of the changes, someone had spoken to the vendor, and obviously the vendors were the type who, once informed, acts correctly.

They should have been informed after an inspection of the grounds by the Festa Committee who either is lazy in their work, or, perhaps actually support what had been removed.

At the last Festa, just before the endemic shut everything down, during the big night before the parade, the most attended night of the Festa, the county sheriff-supported ICE agents were randomly asking people on the street for their IDs on their way to and from the Festa Grounds to see if they could nab any undocumented persons.

People were being harassed merely for going to the feast and looking like immigrants.

The next morning, our Junior G-Man, Sheriff Hodgson, was an honored guest for the kick-off breakfast for the parade after a night of his people rounding up and harassing innocent people on part of the parade route and then, during the parade that celebrates immigrants and refugees and their contribution to the city, he had all his government supplied ICE vehicles used to round up immigrants and refugees in the parade with their lights flashing and him waving.

Ironically, he would soon lose that equipment when his ICE agreement was canceled by the federal government when it was shown he had been systematically denying immigrant county detainees their civil and human rights and was using his office for self-aggrandizement and political positioning.

He had emailed the White House’s Stephen Miller on many occasions reporting on churches that gave comfort, advice, and aid to immigrants like Christians are supposed to do.

There were three anti-immigrant/refugee actions at the last Festa and the people in charge were well aware of the sheriff’s anti-immigrant actions and showed they had no problem with it by allowing those actions without comment.

Action this year was taken after complaints when the display could have been prevented in the first place by ensuring it, like all vendors, met community standards.

We often blame racial tensions and divisions on the obvious while not seeing what is around us.

I hope next year such racial insensitivity can be prevented as opposed corrected.

The initial welcome to the Festa was not welcoming.