Walpole finally ditches Rebels as name of high-school teams

They went from Lee to Grant with their football coaches back in the 90's

As a white person in the North I keep thinking this stuff is a "them" issue, not "us"

Then I see that we have a team called the Rebels in Walpole, that was still the Rebels until 2020? That they still used the battle flag until very recently and some of their supporters can still not let go of. That this did not seem like a big deal to white people up here until just now. That I did not see it , how did I not know this? I must have seen the logo or the team name at some point. This is not even their parents or grandparents heritage. Which makes it even wackier. They chose to adopt this and nobody stopped them until 2020

Walpole Wardens would be excellent

they should rename the team after their town's namesake; the Walpole Chancellors of the Exchequer has a nice ring to it

Concord called its Militia the Concord Minutemen*1 [still does in fact]*2

in Lexington it was just the Town Militia Company -- all of the members in Lexington's Militia Company*3 trained to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress standards*4 and no specific sub-group was designated as a Minute Company

However -- the Town of Lexington has been associated with the term Minutemen for many many years. The official name was launched with the rechartering of the Lexington Militia Company as the Lexington Minutemen*5 to properly honor the Centennial of the Battle on the Lexington Town Common and the Presidential Visit to Lexington

Ref:
https://concordminutemen.wordpress.com/

*1
January 12, 1775, when the original Concord Minute Men signed the muster rolls thus organizing one of the most famous citizen militia units in American history.
*2
a proclamation chartering the unit was issued by the Concord Selectmen and the Public Ceremonies Committee on December 10, 1962. The date of the first muster was Saturday January 12, the same date the original Minute Men first mustered in 1775.

Ref:
https://www.lexingtonminutemen.com/about.html

*3
Chartered by the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Sept. 6, 1689, the unit was originally known as the Second Military Company in Cambridge -- at the time Lexington was known as Cambridge Farms

*5
The company was re-chartered in 1874 ahead of an official visit by President Ulysses S. Grant, and currently operates under a charter granted May 5, 1910 by Gov. Eben S. Draper which permanently established the Minute Men as an independent, unattached military command in Massachusetts.

*4
Ref
Wikipedia Minutemen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minutemen

The Massachusetts Provincial Congress recommended to the militia to form themselves into companies of minute-men, who should be equipped and prepared to march at the shortest notice. These minute-men were to comprise one-quarter of the whole militia, to be enlisted under the direction of the field-officers, and divide into companies, consisting of at least 50 men each. The privates were to choose their captains and subalterns, and these officers were to form the companies into battalions, and chose the field-officers to command the same. Hence the minute-men became a body distinct from the rest of the militia, and, by being more devoted to military exercises, they acquired skill in the use of arms. More attention than formerly was likewise bestowed on the training and drilling of militia

As an 80's kid from the Boston burbs, the rebel flag meant Lynyrd Skynrd music, The Dukes of Hazard (Yee haw), and maybe monster trucks.

When I saw people clinging to the Confederacy, I also saw it in loose cultural ways, similar to how people of Irish descent drink Guinness, or Italian descent eat fish & pasta at Christmas, and wear Italian horns as necklaces.

In the last few years, I'm more aware of some of the history (eg Confederacy statues going up in the 1950's).

But I guess my point is that some of these displays may be deliberately racist. And I get that people find them offensive in a lot of ways. But I also bet you almost anything that most every resident of Walpole today just sees The Rebels as a goofy spirited symbol, like I used to watch Bo & Luke jump their car over construction sites.

We should change, but those people arent evil.

So they felt Rebel was not appropriate but the name Porkers is just fine?

Who the hell names a girls team the Porkers??