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Leftists Just Cannot Stand The American Flag
If you live at the serene and well-tended Brookside Gardens Apartments off of McKinley Avenue and 100th Street East, you can have a planter on your deck, and a barbecue, patio furniture and one quarter of a cord of wood â but not the American flag displayed for all to see.I guess itâs not scenic, Old Glory. Or perhaps itâs distracting. Or pushy. U.S. Flag Codewise, Deanna Wallace, 46, has had hers properly hung â field of stars to the viewerâs left â inside the eave of her third-floor deck since last July. She displays it to honor the most important men in her life. Her son, Pfc. Jeremy Wallace, 20, is in Iraq with the Stryker brigade. He is in Mosul, where he survived a roadside bomb attack in which he sustained neck and head injuries from which he has recovered. Her sweetheart, Sgt. Charles Reid, is in the Army in Afghanistan, building roads in the high country. The flag is a comfort to Wallace, a reminder that even her fear and loneliness are part of a tradition of sacrifice abroad and at home. Wallace comes from a military family and, as far back as she can remember, has taken her flag seriously. "To me it means freedom, courage, dedication, everything it says on a magnet on my refrigerator," she said, retrieving and reading it: "The stars and stripes tell a story of dedication, grace and glory." But her stars and stripes, hung from two small hooks inside that deck eave, are renegade colors. On July 20, Wallace got a note from Brookside Gardens Apartmentsâ "community manager." "Dear Deanna Wallace," it read. "It is important that I speak with you as soon as possible. Please stop by the business office or call me no later than Friday, July 22, 2005, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m." Sounded serious and mysterious, especially in light of the effort Wallace invests in being a good neighbor at Brookside. Her apartment is immaculate. She does not party or play loud music. She goes to work, the gym, and home and jokes that she has no life. So Wallace responded at once. "They told me to remove my flag," she said. "They said remove it, or move it back where it canât be seen. Itâs not uniform with the building." At first, she was stunned, then angry. Then she cried. She took down the flag. The next day, she put it back. The disabled veteran who lives in a first floor apartment in the building next to hers never did take down his American or Washington state flags, though he got a similar notice. Brookside Gardens is one of 60-some properties managed by Allied Group, Inc., of Renton. Christy Throm is Alliedâs portfolio manager responsible for Brookside, and the person who, on a site visit, ordered the flag down. She wants to make it very clear that Allied has nothing against the flag and respects the flag. But, she said, this flag is in violation of the lease and rules and regulations documents Wallace signed. Throm and I spoke twice. The first time, she said the rules and regulations banned all flags and banners. "No," Wallace responded, and produced the documents in question. No mention of flags and banners. Throm also insisted the flag was attached to the building outside the patio and that it was impinging on public space. In fact, it is, and always has been, attached to the inside of the patio and hangs inside the patio unless a breeze flaps it into the top-floor airspace. Even then, it takes up no more public air than the bamboo spreading out of a pot in a nearby building or the planter of flowers hanging across the creek from Wallaceâs deck. When Throm got back to me later, she repeated that Allied has no problem with the American flag. "Theyâre welcome to put it on a stand on the patio and let it fly or put it inside their patio," she said. If you saw the sliding doors that make up the apartment side of the deck, you would recognize how impractical that is. Throm backed away from the flags and banners provision that isnât there. She hit instead on Item 23: "No storage of personal belongings or furnishings will be permitted on porches or public areas. Deck/patio storage is limited to a quarter-cord of firewood, small barbecue, planters and patio furniture." No mention of a flag stand there. Not that Wallace is storing her flag. Sheâs displaying it, and proudly. "Iâm not taking it down," Wallace said. "Itâs my right to display it, and itâs staying right where it is. I salute her â and her flag. In a way, it's like vampires and the Christian cross. Or leftists and the Christian cross, now that you think about it. Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-07-28 |
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