"Redmen Forever is finite.

At some point, the organizers behind the move to restore the Redmen nickname to Natick High School will realize the fight is over.

It was more than a year ago when the School Committee voted 4-3 to discontinue using a nickname that members of the local American Indian tribe it was intended to pay homage to said they were offended.

No matter, organizers said. Apparently, Redmen supporters only cared about their own history of high school triumphs and not the deeper and longer history of those who lived here long before any of us.

When I lived in Georgia and Florida, people flew the stars and bars of the Confederate battle flag in what they professed as homage to their Southern heritage. It was a source of pride. It didn't seem to matter that no black people flew the same flag and comments that the flag was offensive were met with, "It's my history."

Well, our history is also segregation, outlawing interracial marriage, Jim Crow laws, Japanese-American interment camps and broken treaties with American Indians. There comes a point where we learn from our mistakes, put the history in the books and move forward all the wiser.

Now that would be a campaign platform to get behind."

Get the Story:
Rob Haneisen: Too late for Natick Redmen candidates (The MetroWest Daily News 6/25)

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Massachusetts school drops 'Redmen' nickname (6/17)
Editorial: 'Redmen' nickname a symbol of oppression (6/13)
Letter: 'Redmen' mascot doesn't belong in school (3/21)
Public school in Massachusetts drops 'Redmen' nick (3/6)