THE
WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson Red Bluff Daily News 6/04/2024
Sadly, my flag flies upside down
I’ve more to say on that, but first a final note to reserve your seats
for the Red, White and Blue Republican Dinner, to be held June 8 at the Heart S
Ranch, 17420 Bowman Road, Cottonwood, at 5 PM for social hour, and 6 PM for
dinner and program. Call 530-949-2761 to find out if seats are available.
Sadly, but not too sadly, our tickets will have to be contributions, as the
onset of 100+ temps drives us (literally) in our RV off to the mountains.
***
“According to the U.S. Flag Code, flying the American flag upside down is
only meant to be done ‘as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme
danger to life or property.’” The term “dire distress” is in the “eye of the
beholder”; protests from the Vietnam War to Black Lives Matter have used both
the upside-down flag, as well as the “Appeal to Heaven,” pine tree flag.
This column is proscribed from delving into the larger issues surrounding
the current flag protests. However, search some articles by title (also, at
Donpolson.blogsot.com): “Our Upside Down Flag Moment Is Upon Us,” (redstate.com);
“Which Party Is The Real ‘Threat To Democracy’?” (Dailycaller.com). Also, “A
Republic, If You Can Keep It” (andrewdavisweb.wordpress.com), Founder Benjamin
Franklin’s reply when asked by a woman if the Constitutional Convention had
given this new nation a monarchy or republic.
***
The building of my flag pole began with a pile of rocks harvested from
the next-door lot after we bought it around 1991. About a quarter-century ago,
it occurred to us to organize those rocks into a large post by forming a
stretch of “hog fence” into a round container for said rocks. I had much more
industrious energy then.
Then, the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC,
brought a nationwide wave of patriotism, which prompted me to pull out the
American flag given us after my Dad, a Navy veteran, passed. I used the longest
wooden pole I could find to attach that flag and, by rearranging those rocks,
support my flagpole. You’ve heard the expression, “project creep,” and so it
began.
The wooden pole wasn’t long enough for a 6 ft by 10 ft flag, so I
acquired a metal pole of sufficient length to keep the flag a proper distance
from the ground. The pole then had to be buried further into the rocks; the winds
pushed it around. I added an outer pipe for stability, only to realize the only
proper way would require burying the bottom into the ground with concrete.
Well, that required removing the rocks and hog wire, digging a two-foot
hole and adding the concrete while being mindful of the need for vertical
leveling, lest my flagpole be off kilter. Now that the basic flagpole was layers
of pipe thick, the height was no longer sufficient. With an additional 15-foot
pipe, my Dad’s flag would fly about 30 feet off the ground.
That outer pipe needed lifting high enough to slip down to rest on the
lower section. Lacking a “cherry picker,” I asked a tree service guy if I could
hire his; and a worker to lift and lower the final piece of my flagpole. The “crowning
jewel” was a golden eagle with a rotating pulley wheel to allow the wind to
move the flag around. The tree guy was happy to comp me the service for my flagpole.
A neighbor was kind enough to weld the two pipes together; a little
silver Rust-oleum paint to protect it and “Bob’s your uncle,” I had one of the
finest flagpoles in the county. But what about nighttime? I used some leftover
rocks to secure an outdoor flood light; add a dawn-to-dusk timer and it was
done.
Jeff Foxworthy’s “redneck” tag line comes to mind: You might be a patriot
if…you go through what I did just to fly your veteran dad’s flag day and night.
Johnny Cash’s tribute to a weathered small-town flag, “That Ragged Old Flag,”
also comes to mind.
I’ve had to “retire” a few flags since then, courtesy of the scouts and
vets. When we are in our Red Bluff home, provided it’s not storming, that
beautiful symbol of America unfurls in front of our house, with gratitude for
the hundreds of thousands of lives given in military service and conflicts to
secure this nation from foreign subjugation. President Reagan’s photo graced the
half-staff flagpole in 2004.
In closing, I submit that it is a foreign form of government, witnessed
in “banana republics” and totalitarian nations, for retribution and legal persecution
to be exacted on those of a political party or persuasion that is out of power,
by those holding, perhaps temporarily, the reins of power. These are despotic
attempts to secure that hold on power for the crass goal of tilting the scales
and securing a permanent iron grip on the executive, legislative, and even
judicial branches. A free, representative Republic it is not.
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