State Senator apologizes for wearing ‘offensive’ face mask to Capitol: A mask ‘my wife made for me’

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE.


A Michigan state senator felt compelled to issue an apology this weekend after backlash erupted last week over him wearing a Confederate flag face mask during a Senate vote at the state Capitol.

Seen below, state Sen. Dale W. Zorn’s apology came after he first tried to deny having worn a Confederate flag face mask:

“It wasn’t a Confederate flag,” he’d said a day earlier to local news station WLNS. “It was a mask that my wife made for me and she wanted me to wear it. I told my wife it probably will raise some eyebrows, but it was not a Confederate flag.”

Despite denying that he’d worn a Confederate flag mask, he went on to defend Confederate flags.

“Even if it was a Confederate flag, you know, we should be talking about teaching our national history in schools,” he said. “And that’s part of our national history and it’s something we can’t just throw away because it is part of our history.”

“And if we want to make sure that the atrocities that happened during that time doesn’t happen again, we should be teaching it. Our kids should know what that flag stands for.”

Listen:

Byron Thomas, a black former University of South Carolina student who penned a column in 2015 detailing his love of the Confederate flag and bemoaning the hatred and bigotry he experiences for that love, would likely agree with Zorn’s logic.

“I’ve been called ‘an Uncle Tom’ and ‘a sellout,’ and accused of despising my race,” he wrote for The Washington Post at the time.

“Let me be clear: I love the skin that I am in. God gave me my skin color, but he also gave me freedom to think for myself and the right to stand by my beliefs. My skin color should not determine how I think, what I believe and what flags I hang in my home.”

He added that his love of the flag stems from his heritage.

“For me and many Southerners, the flag celebrates my heritage and regional pride,” he wrote. “One of my ancestors, Benjamin Thomas, was a black Confederate cook, and I do not want to turn my back on his service to the South. So I hang the flag in honor of his hard work and dedication to South Carolina during the Civil War.”

Unfortunately, logic, reason, common sense, empathy and forgiveness appear to have no meaning anymore — particularly to members of the left — and so rather predictably, Zorn’s apology provoked thousands of people to harangue him on Twitter with hateful remarks, all on the dubious basis that he’s the hateful one.

Look (*Language warning):

Love trumps hate, right? Make that make sense …

Some state legislators also responded to Zorn, albeit more sensibly, including Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, the first African American to hold the office.

“As someone who has fought for civil rights his entire life … as the first black lieutenant governor in the history of Michigan, as the first black person to preside over the Michigan state Senate, it was appalling and disgusting to see a confederate flag chosen as the face mask by a sitting state senator,” he said on MSNBC this Saturday.

It’s not clear how Gilchrist feels about young black gentlemen such as Thomas.

Gilchrist also complained about seeing Confederate flags and “swastikas” during lockdown protests that occurred last week in the state capital.

“To see those confederate flags and swastikas in the Capitol last week shows you what this was really all about,” he said. “This was not about protesting orders to stay home and stay safe. This was about politics and partisanship. That was a Trump rally.”

The swastikas were designed to poke fun at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who’s been compared to deceased Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler over her increasingly authoritarian lockdown measures.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles