Wednesday, 14 October 2009

• Take down your American Flags!

  For the first time in a long time, I found myself feeling particularly politically motivated yesterday.  A friend from High School posted on an article on Facebook that really lifted my eyebrows. 

   

  The Oaks Apartments in Albany, Oregon have instituted a ban against flying flags of any sort in the complex.  That includes, you guessed it, the American flag.

   

  WOW.

   

  This morning I double checked to see if any changes were made to the story before I posted this, and I found quite a bit of new information on this story.  Here is the link to the article I am quoting:

   

  http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/article_d7d3c902-b4ee-11de-b11b-001cc4c03286.html

   

  The apartment manager had this to say about her course of actions:

   

  "I'm trying to avoid any conflict," Holcomb said. "I have a problem when tenants' rights to free speech come into contact with other tenants' rights of peaceful enjoyment. This policy is not a violation of anyone's civil rights.

  "We're a diverse community here, and we've had previous problems with this sort of thing," she said.

  WOW Again.  I didn’t realize flags were able to ruin the “rights of peaceful enjoyment” of another tenant.  It is this kind of nonsense that I am getting quite tired of from a political standpoint.  Rather than worry about people getting offended or having to think for themselves or learn to respect another culture, all of the cultures in that apartment complex are getting smeared, and quite frankly, the most important culture just had a moronic apartment manager take a big dump on it.  The most important culture in America is of course the AMERICAN culture.  You know, it’s that culture that allows us to BE WHO WE ARE regardless of your race or gender.  It is the culture that allows for individuality and freedom.  This is not a country that says “You can’t fly YOUR flag here” this is a country that says “You CAN fly your flag here, you just can’t do it above ours.”

  Doesn’t that tell you something?

  The ACLU managed to make a quote about this little incident as well:

  Jann Carson, the associate director of the ACLU of Oregon, agreed that Clausen and other tenants' civil rights are not being violated under the new policy.

  "It is my understanding in Oregon that an owner of private property can apply those types of restrictions," she said. "But if there is any evidence of racial motivation for those kinds of decisions on private property that are public accommodations, they could run afoul of state statute and federal civil rights laws."

  Ok Ms. Carson.  Who determines those factors?  Who looks at these types of situations and states “That was racially motivated!”  Does that include the nationality of American?  Was this policy in place when the tenants moved in to the structure, or is this a new policy?  Are the tenants being allowed to break their lease with no backlash from the complex if they decide this policy is not for them?

  Quite frankly this is a very simple solution.  The American Flag should be flown from any apartment at any point in time by any tenant.  We live in America and it is the right of every American to show support of their country in a symbolic manner they choose.  Any other flags can be displayed in the individual apartments.  If anyone finds their “rights of peaceful enjoyment” disturbed beyond that, I say let them be disturbed.  No matter how “diverse” your community is if the people within it are enjoying the rights and privileges given to them by the American Flag, then I say they should respect it and learn to live with it or move.

  • 9:57 AM
  • 463 Views
  • 81 eProps
  • 75 Comments