WeShare

Albany made national news this week when a local apartment complex manager told tenants they could be evicted for displaying flags outside their homes or on their vehicles.  The ban has since been rescinded, and the story has appropriately disappeared from the national spotlight.  We learned that people all over the country care deeply about our country’s flag and our right to display it as we choose.

Several years ago, I was a volunteer Scout leader at my church when one of our parents proposed a great fund-raising project.  Our troop would purchase 50 U.S. flags, mount them on an eight-foot length of PVC pipe, and then sell flag subscriptions to local residents.  Subscribers would pay $25 for our Scouts to put up the flags in front of their homes at sunrise on Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, and the Fourth of July and take them down at sunset.  The idea was a big hit in La Grande, and the troop earned good money for their efforts.  Somehow, I found myself in charge of the project over a three- or four-year period in the late 1990s and early years of this decade.

We had a great group of young men in our Scout troop in those days, and I generally enjoyed getting up before dawn on holidays to help put up the flags.  We received many compliments from our subscribers and local residents; so the project also seemed to build some community good will.  The day after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, my son and I delivered the flags to subscribers and asked that they display them for the next week.  We could do very little for the victims of the tragedy in its immediate aftermath, but we were at least able to show we cared.

Our Scout troop eventually earned enough money from our flag project and exhausted our volunteers to the point that we decided to end the program by selling the flags to our subscribers.  I purchased one for our family, and we still put it out on holidays when we are home.  I need to confess, however, that I have never equated patriotism with putting up an American flag in front of my house.  My father, a career U.S. Naval officer who saw combat in WWII and Korea, taught me that patriotism is measured by the sacrifices you make for your country rather than by the presence of a flag decal on your car window.

I trudge out to put up our flag on selected holidays because I care about what it represents.  I passionately believe we should be able to govern ourselves and government of the people, by the people, and for the people is a wonderful and important responsibility.   A flag is no guarantor of this fundamental right, but at least it shows we still care.