Crestview's almost two-decade Confederate battle flag saga has culminated.
City workers on Thursday unceremoniously removed the rebel flag from the William "Bill" Lundy Memorial on East First Avenue and North Ferdon Boulevard. Such a flag had fluttered in the city since 1958, when the Crestview Lions Club dedicated a memorial to Lundy, purportedly Florida's last surviving Confederate veteran.
But this symbol of Southern heritage — for many residents, anyway — seemed more like a celebration of the oppressive South's slavery to others.
Okaloosa County's NAACP branch and community activists had publicly objected to the flag since 1996, but efforts to have it removed, up until 2013, failed.
Then Dylan Roof, a white man, killed nine black people mid-June at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and a photo of him with the Confederate flag spread on the internet. Outrage fueled a nationwide effort to move all rebel flags from the public square to museums, where critics said they belong.
TV Land pulled "The Dukes of Hazzard" from its schedule, apparently, because the 1980s series' iconic General Lee featured the rebel flag.
And professional golfer and Great Floridian Bubba Watson, who owns the actual General Lee, vowed to take the Confederate flag off the top of the 1969 Dodge Charger, according to CBS Sports.
2015 has not been the Confederate flag's year; various states have sent a clear message by removing it from the public square.
A crowd of hundreds cheered Friday in Charleston as the rebel flag came down at the South Carolina Capitol grounds. Uniformed highway patrol officers lowered the flag, folded it and retired it during the ceremony, during which some sang, "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye," according to CNN.
A much different response followed the Crestview flag's unceremonious removal.
"Don't you just love it when politicians cave to the pressure of political correctness?" one woman said on the News Bulletin's Facebook page.
"Whether you agree or not, it should alarm and concern every voter that they were given no say in the matter," another said.
"What gives them the right to just do this?" one man said. "The people have no voice anymore!"
That's not so surprising when you consider public opinion: 57 percent of Americans view the flag as a symbol of Southern pride, not racism, according to a CNN-ORC poll.
Of course, some, like Sabu Williams, of the local NAACP, and community activist Mae Reatha Coleman spent years petitioning for the flag's removal — with Coleman, whom I know personally, telling anyone who would listen why it's so painful for her to see the city endorse this otherwise harmless piece of fabric. They're among those who have seen victory after fighting so long for what they believed in.
Then there's the Lundy family, whose members intimately feel the sting from Thursday's action. For them, this isn't just about preserving history but also protecting Bill Lundy's honor, particularly as a number of residents question his military record's accuracy.
So many aspects to this story have made it one of the most difficult ones to cover. Crestview's flag isn't just about Southern heritage or racism, depending on your view; it's also about family honor and now, as former Crestview City Councilwoman Robyn Helt pointed out Monday, protocol. She criticized the city for removing the flag outside of Florida's Sunshine law.
She has a fair point, for more reasons than one.
With all the passion, pride, pain and scrutiny surrounding this flag, residents needed a public meeting about its fate.
And if the flag had to come down, then, like in South Carolina, the city's residents needed a proper ceremony to cheer or mourn its departure.
It's unfortunate that, after more than 50 years fluttering, Crestview residents didn't have that chance to say goodbye.
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BONI: The Confederate flag deserved a proper farewell