American Flag Haters
You put your life on the line to protect the freedom of all. You receive the Medal of Honor. You fight in three wars. You manage to live to be 90 years old and how are you rewarded? Some overly politically correct snit gets a knot in their bloomers and decides to pick on a hero. Now I don’t know about you but I have always found the American flag a thing of beauty. The bigger it is and the higher it flies the more proud I feel.
Maybe the Sussex Square Homeowners Association should re-evaluate its bylaws. Bylaws that do not allow the flying of an American flag atop a high pole and who object to the sight of the flag are stupid. Sorry if that offends you but it is just plain stupid.
Folks like Col. Barfoot have been putting their lives on the line for centuries, many even sacrificed their lives so that we can do and think and speak as we feel without fear of retribution. Barfoot is a MOH hero and some snit is offended by his flag. Maybe it’s the Sussex Square Homeowners Association that should be receiving legal letters telling them that we object to their total lack of pro-American sensitivity.
Barfoot is one who has earned the right for a small exception. Actually looking at the video and the footage of the development with all the tall trees, it appears to me that his flag pole actually blends into the surroundings more than the short, angular mounts the association prefers. Give the man a break.
The story from the Richmond Times Dispatch, written by Bill McKelway:
Col. Van T. Barfoot, a local Medal of Honor winner, is under the gun from his Henrico County community’s homeowner association.
In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion.
In a priority mail letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond is ordering Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face "legal action being brought to enforce the Covenants and Restrictions against you." The letter states that Barfoot will be subject to paying all legal fees and costs in any successful legal proceeding pursued by the homeowner association’s board.
Barfoot’s daughter said this evening that news reports about the association order have prompted an outpouring of sympathy and offers of help from people following her father’s ordeal.
Tonight, the Sussex Square Homeowners Association issued a statement reiterating its position that Barfoot directly violated the association board’s denial of his request to erect a flagpole.
"This is not about the American flag. This about a flagpole," the statement reads.
Barfoot lives in the Sussex Square community in far western Henrico; its board of directors rejected a plea from Barfoot in July to approve the pole, disallowing the fixture on aesthetic grounds.
There is no provision in the community’s rules expressly forbidding flagpoles, Barfoot’s daughter said. But she said the board ruled against her father’s fixture and ordered it removed in July, deciding that free-standing flag poles are not aesthetically appropriate. Short flag stands attached to porches dot the community.
"Dad sort of feels like this is the end," said Margaret Nicholls, Barfoot’s daughter, who lives a few doors away. But she said this morning that she and her husband are attempting to generate support for her father’s cause, a flag-raising rite that he has undertaken for most of his life.
Barfoot received the Medal of Honor on the battlefield during World War II in Italy and fought as well in the Korean and Vietnam wars. A portion of a highway in rural Mississippi, his native state, was named in his honor this fall. A building at McGuire Veterans Hospital in Richmond also carries his name.
Barfoot began regularly flying the flag on Veteran’s Day this year despite the Sussex Square board’s decision.
He said in November that not flying the flag would be a sacrilege to him.
"There’s never been a day in my life or a place I’ve lived in my life that you couldn’t fly the American flag," he said.
For more on this story, see tomorrow’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.
— Bill McKelway
Click here to read the full article in the Richmond newspaper and to watch the video.
Posts
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I feel it is perfectly OK to burn the flag, wear it as a diaper, or fly it proudly. Our military gives their lives for those freedoms, this fellow is a hero.
I suggest an amendment to the HOA rules – if you have a Medal of Honor, you get a flagpole.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Who are the Board Members making this decision?
December 4th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
In current reports it appears that the subdivision is pretty much evenly split on the issue but the final decision remains with the 9-member ‘board’ whose only response was “…rules are rules. You know the rules when you move in. So abide by the rules or move out.”
As one reporter said, that comment is fine, but I wonder, have any of those 9 members ever broken the speed limit? Rules are rules!
The Col is 90 years old and has given his all for our country. Let him be. At least let him show his respect for the flag. He has earned that right. The “Board” should reconsider their position and should feel honored to have one of the few living MOH recipients amoungst their neighbors. Instead of tearing down his flagpole, they should be considering a meorial for him.
Dad
December 8th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
A group of students has just launched a PETITION to support Col. Van Barfoot and his right to fly the American flag with pride and respect.
Please join & spread the word.
http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/get-involved/online-petitions/petition-support-veteran-col-barfoot-american-flag.html