Michi­gan inn removes Nor­we­gian flag as res­i­dents false­ly believe it’s the Con­fed­er­ate flag

A case of mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty has caused the own­ers of a Michi­gan bed and break­fast to remove a Nor­we­gian flag from the front of the inn after dozens of peo­ple con­fused the flag with a Con­fed­er­ate flag, a report said.
When Greg and Kjer­sten Off­beck­er moved into the his­toric man­sion in St. Johns years ago and turned it into a bed and break­fast called Nordic Pineap­ple, they installed the flag as a dec­o­ra­tion and hung an Amer­i­can flag next to it, WLIX report­ed.
How­ev­er, dozens of guests and peo­ple dri­ving by the inn have wrong­ly accused the cou­ple of fly­ing a Con­fed­er­ate flag.

“They are the same col­or, but there are no stars on the Nor­we­gian flag, and the Con­fed­er­ate flag is a big ‘x’ and the Nor­we­gian flag is part of the Nordic coun­tries, they’re all cross­es,” Kjer­sten Off­beck­er said.

Last week, the cou­ple decid­ed to remove the flag as part of a new mar­ket­ing cam­paign, the report said.

“We start­ed to have this con­cern that it was deter­ring peo­ple away from com­ing to our bed and break­fast,” Off­beck­er said. “That they would see it and make this judg­ment.”
Off­beck­er said the flag was hung as a way for her to rep­re­sent her her­itage, but with the con­fu­sion, she took it down because it was not worth the frus­tra­tion, the tele­vi­sion sta­tion report­ed. She said they have received cru­el emails and phone calls over the con­fu­sion of the flag.

“What we’re get­ting is so much more neg­a­tive now,” she said. “It’s not just, ‘hey you’re fly­ing the Con­fed­er­ate flag.’ It’s, ‘you should be ashamed to fly the Con­fed­er­ate flag. You’re a big­ot because you fly the Con­fed­er­ate flag.’”

Some peo­ple are even con­vinced the home was built by Con­fed­er­ate lead­ers, the report said. In fact, it was built by union work­ers for the daugh­ter of the Saint Johns founder.

The cou­ple still wants to fly the Nor­we­gian flag and is try­ing to find a new way to accom­plish that with­out get­ting complaints.

Source: Fox News