People on social media, the Free Lance website and outside a busy Hollister store resoundingly called a man’s posting of a Confederate flag on his private property off Southside Road in rural Hollister an act of free speech, while some labeled it racist and others said they were unaffected.
Michael Zgragen’s flying of the flag on his private property caused tension with neighbor Lisa Jensen after customers at her Suncoast Organic Farm Bakery, across Tres Pinos Creek, began to mistake the banner located at the edge of his property as hers.
“It’s a tough one,” said Hollister resident Lisa Sutton, as she stood outside Safeway in Hollister. “Well, I guess they have a right to freedom of speech because I see some other signs in the neighborhood that I’m not happy with, too.”
Descendants of Confederate soldiers, who fought during the nation’s Civil War, argue the flag represents history and shows Southern heritage and pride. Some say it displays rebellion against authority. Others see it as a symbol of racism and hate, especially after it was adopted by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Subjects interviewed for this story were talked to outside of the Safeway store located off Tres Pinos Road in Hollister.
“Isn’t he entitled to have what he wants on private property as long as he’s not offending anybody?” said Hollister resident Mary Ortiz. “But if he wants peace, they should talk as to how they work it.”
By Wednesday, Zgragen, who did not return repeated phone calls before the original story’s publishing, called the Free Lance on Tuesday to announce the flag would be coming down this evening.
“I probably made a mistake and I’m sorry that I upset so many people,” Zgragen said. “The flag will be coming down tonight.”
Zgragen added he hoped people would stop bothering his 89-year-old mother with phone calls and added, “Mamma’s know best.”
The Hollister Free Lance’s initial story about the neighborly dispute garnered a lot of attention on social media, including more than 400 Facebook “likes” for the story and dozens of comments on social media and the newspaper’s website, as of Wednesday afternoon.
One comment on the Free Lance’s website—later lifted by Nate Rodriguez and published on Facebook— celebrated the flag’s beauty and history.
“This is a beautiful flag, it’s the ancient religious symbol known as the Saint Andrew’s Cross,” read the comment posted by ChirpyOne. “The Scotland flag is the same design. Many CSA soldiers came from Scotland and Ireland so they naturally chose the design as their flag. It is the soldiers’ flag, nothing more. It’s flown nowadays to honor our ancestors and to show resistance to tyranny.”
Hollister resident Natalie Crowe, who stopped outside Safeway to talk with the Free Lance, argued the flag did not represent beautiful things.
“The flag represents racism,” she said. “It represents a bad part of our history, so it’s understandable why someone would get offended by that.”
San Juan Bautista resident Margaret Gonzalez, who also stopped outside the supermarket, suggested there were bigger things to worry about than a flag.
“To me, if it’s not physically hurting you, we’ve got other stuff to worry about besides that,” she said. “If you don’t believe in it, just don’t look at it.”
Many comments on social media and the newspaper’s website continued to glorify free speech, whether readers agreed with the topic.
“Everyone and I mean everyone in this country has and is doing something that annoys or disturbs others,” wrote a commenter on the Free Lance’s website with the username ‘Anothercomment’. “It’s what makes America great, freedom to be ones self with protections from our constitutional rights. Of course crimes and murders are not protected so don’t get all uppity.”
