Update: AJC.com
Ms. Renbarger is receiving much praise for her taking responsibility of not only painting the flag, but heading the cleanup effort.
Wow! I didn't think anybody took responsibility for their own actions anymore...
AJC: Flag painters' hopes take a scrubbing
I darn near lost my cool with this article when I saw that a humble 9-year old girl, and her sister, were being forced by city council to remove a painting of the national flag from their street. According to the article, Rachel Renbarger did the painting as a patriotic gesture for the 2005 July 4th celebration.
"The City Council recommended Monday that a painted image of Old Glory be removed from a street in Mayor Shirley Lasseter's own neighborhood. Children and their parents had painted the banner the last Fourth of July in a display of civics and patriotism. But the city lawyer warned it could set a precedent for some neighborhood Nazi's planting a swastika or some other offensive symbol on a city street if the flag symbol remained."
Aside from the garbage comment from the city attorney, I read the concerns of both Linda Hutchinson and Don Ogden. Hutchinson wants the painting, while Ogden cites federal rules against it. Ogden is a flag supporter and World War II veteran.
But let's look at this from Ms. Renbarger's point of view. Was she trying to desecrate the flag, e. g. burn it? No. Was she making a statement against our country? No. Was she doing this as a matter of patriotism and to honor our country? YES!
Once again, adults muck up an honest-to-goodness thing.
Ms. Renbarger, I fully support your artistic efforts despite what so-called 'mature adults' may say. Your heart was in the right place.
Aside from the garbage comment from the city attorney, I read the concerns of both Linda Hutchinson and Don Ogden. Hutchinson wants the painting, while Ogden cites federal rules against it. Ogden is a flag supporter and World War II veteran.
But let's look at this from Ms. Renbarger's point of view. Was she trying to desecrate the flag, e. g. burn it? No. Was she making a statement against our country? No. Was she doing this as a matter of patriotism and to honor our country? YES!
Once again, adults muck up an honest-to-goodness thing.
Ms. Renbarger, I fully support your artistic efforts despite what so-called 'mature adults' may say. Your heart was in the right place.
Posts
1 comment:
The city council never should have gotten involved. Fear of a downhill slope is a ridiculous argument; if we all lived life like that, we wouldn't be worth much as a society.
I agree with Mr. Ogden, though; since I was a child, I've had proper flag etiquette drilled in to me by my grandfather, uncles, father, and several teachers. However, this would have been much better resolved by him going to the Renbargers personally and making his concerns known as opposed to going the "legal" route. Judging by the update in today's paper, Mr. Renbarger and Rachel were willing to learn and have agreed that the flag shouldn't be there.
The funny thing is, to me, she has come out the winner by the way she has handled herself and the fact that her parents have seemingly sat back and allowed for learning to occur instead of getting in the way and turning this in to something bigger. This could have gone a lot worse, given the area they live in.
Post a Comment