How Dare You Ban The American Flag!

A Town in Texas Bans American Flags on Veterans Graves…How Dare you!

In the town of Mineral Wells, they have an ordinance that has stated that American Flags can only be allowed on graves in the town’s Woodland Park Cemetery one week before and after Memorial Day and Veterans Day. July 4^th and Labor Day were not part of the approved time frame. Citizens expressed outrage. A public meeting was set for the reconsideration of the flag policy.

Veteran Robert Veach whose father is buried at the cemetery, has spoken out against the ordinance. Veach believes that he should be allowed to put an American Flag on his grave 365 days a year. I whole heartedly agree.

An administrative clerk for Mineral Wells stated that because of the number of
items that are placed on gravesites, which included teddy bears, statues, bird
baths and squirrel feeders were becoming far too many.

The clerk added, “Excessive adornment at the cemetery was becoming unsightly, so the cemetery  came up with a solution that they thought would work for all.”

Within days of the ordinance passing the city received numerous complaints from angry citizens. Now flags will be allowed on the 4^th of July Holiday again.

In Seminole, Florida, demonstrators waved American Flags in protest after the city ordered that all American Flags be removed from fire trucks. The flags were ordered removed after receiving complaints that they were being displayed improperly. Really?

How many firemen did we lose in the 2001 9/11 attack? And after the attack, ABC News asked all it’s on air reporters not to wear American Flag lapel pins, nor red, white and blue ribbons.

After 9/11 many Americans were eager and proud to show their support for our country by adorning themselves, their homes, their workplaces and even their cars with patriotic symbols. And apparently this outbreak created a problem for the ABC News Network who stated that it has been a long standing practice that on air personnel should not wear or otherwise display ribbons or buttons bearing
national flags.

“Why would it ever be inappropriate?” wondered Britt Hume, Fox News channels managin editor in Washington. “It doesn’t stand for the Bush Administration or for a certain party or for even the government. It stands for the country. Why is
wearing a symbol of which you’re a citizen a problem?”

CBS, NBC, and CNN have no set policy. ABC is the first major network to ask it’s
journalists not to wear American Flag pins or red, white and blue ribbons in an
effort to protect their credibility as objective sources. Still it appears that
ABC believes they will just appear as mouth pieces for the U.S. Government.

The American flag consists of thirteen horizontal stripes of red top to bottom, alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton which is referred specifically as the “Union”, bearing fifty small five pointed stars, arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars, top and bottom, alternating with rows of five
stars. The fifty stars on the flag represent the fifty states of the United
States of America and the thirteen stripes represent the 13 British Colonies
that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the
first States of the Union.

The American Flag has a long history of flying high from forts, embassies, ships, houses, churches and yes adorning the graves of the fallen soldiers who fought and died for America. No one has the right to determine when those flags can be flown on the graves of those who have fought for our freedom.

One of my proudest moments is when I’m returning from the South Bay on Highway 680, taking the Bollinger Canyon exit, and looking upward to the left at our Memorial Park high flying American Flag billowing in the wind. There is a plaque for Thomas Burnett Jr. of San Ramon, who was among those heroes of flight 93 that fought the hijackers and lost their lives on September 11, 2001 for which that flag flies. Let us always remember and never forget what freedom means and what it costs.

Fly your flags proudly Americans!  

MJC