Bless the Herald for publishing “In their own words: Hello neighbor,” (Herald, Feb. 27), the recent exchange between anonymous neighbors and the spirited Aline C. Schwob. The former mistakenly assumed that the latter’s upside-down U.S. flag represented hatred and disrespect for our country, not its well-known significance as a distress signal – something we’ve seen often of late in civilian protests. The exchange got me thinking about my own assumptions.
As I drive around La Plata County, I sometimes assume that most folks displaying the flag are Republicans “wrapping themselves” in it. Yet that Gold Star family honoring their daughter killed in combat has been Democratic since before FDR (and Aline Schwob has a flag). Maybe that big flag painted on a barn means that someone loves his country but cheats on his taxes. It seems I should give up my assumptions and find out for myself. Maybe we all should.
An unintended upside-down story: On a flagpole, the flag is usually attached to a rope loop; pull on the wrong side and the flag goes up upside down. In the 1960s, as a uniformed National Park Service ranger at Tumacácori National Monument in southern Arizona, my duties included raising the flag. The day I pulled on the wrong side, a surprise visitor, U.S. Sen. Carl Hayden, good-humoredly told me what I had done. His uptight chief of staff, however, pulled me aside to scold me: “Don’t you know, young man, that flying the flag upside down is an international distress signal?” I’ve never forgotten.
John L. Kessell
Durango
