A questionable form of protest

[eisely]

Sebastopol is a town North of San Francisco in Sonoma County. To say that it is liberal in outlook greatly understates the case. This is a town that declared itself a "nuclear free zone" many years, and the official signs welcoming you to the town on the road make this point. Be all that as it may, this story describes a petty action by persons unknown to intentionally degrade the observation of veterans' day.

______________________

 

Sebastopol vandalism may be war protest

 

Nearly 200 flag holes filled with concrete before Veterans Day

November 11, 2003

 

 

By DEREK J. MOORE

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

 

In what may be an unusual war protest, Sebastopol police say almost 200 holes along city sidewalks were plugged with concrete in an apparent effort to keep Boy Scouts from flying American flags today in honor of Veterans Day.

 

The vandalism in the heart of downtown forced city workers to spend several hours Monday drilling out the concrete in time for today's festivities.

 

Police said they have no motive or suspects in the crime, but they speculated that because of the timing of the vandalism, it was done in protest of U.S. military operations in Iraq.

 

City officials were stumped by the vandalism, first reported Monday by a pedestrian.

 

"It's pretty odd, but it's so fresh it looks like it was done during the night last night," Rich Emig, Sebastopol's public works superintendent, said Monday.

 

On certain holidays, including Martin Luther King Day and the Fourth of July, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts fan out early in the morning to erect the flags and then take them down at the end of the day.

 

"Whoever did it doesn't understand that it's 12-year-old kids putting the flags up," said Jim Lehman, Scoutmaster for Sebastopol's Troop 14. "They don't have an agenda."

 

The area of the vandalism -- on Main Street downtown and along Highway 12 between High Street and Petaluma Avenue -- has been the site of frequent anti-war protests for months.

 

But a spokeswoman for an anti-war group, Women In Black, denounced the vandalism, saying it goes against the group's nonviolent views. The group holds silent vigil protests in the city weekly.

 

"We respect anyone that would want to fly the flag," said Sylvia Melrose of Sebastopol. "And we certainly wouldn't support anyone who would do something like this."

 

Gary Medvigy, a Sonoma County deputy district attorney who was called to active duty last spring as an Army colonel, also expressed outrage.

 

"If this was a political statement, it certainly struck a chord. I've got guys over there who are wounded," said Medvigy, who is temporarily back home in Sebastopol after a six-month tour of duty at the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar, on the Persian Gulf.

 

Police and city officials said the vandalism was thought out because whoever did it apparently lugged around concrete mix, painstakingly pouring some into 90 percent of the 200 flag holes.

 

The vandal or vandals apparently moved quickly because the work was not neatly done.

 

Emig said the vandalism was the first he could remember since the flag holders were drilled almost 40 years ago.

 

The city dispatched four workers, three trucks and two hammer drills Monday to repair the damage. The work took four hours to complete and is expected to cost the city $1,080, Emig said.

 

Police said they would keep a close eye on the area Monday night to avoid a repeat of the vandalism.

 

Medvigy, who is expecting to be re-deployed overseas around Christmas, said he would be out this morning helping the Scouts to put up the flags.

 

"I can take contrary opinions, but vandalism has nothing to do with democracy," he said. "It's just a criminal act."

 

[dsteele]

If the culprits are ever caught, please send them to my office for a little "attitude adjustment." It won't happen again.

 

I would go further, but the act has me so darned mad that I can't articulate my anger well enough.

 

How dare they use their protest of war to stop the honoring of those who sacrifice the most and stand the most to lose? I don't understand and would have a few questions to ask of them in the session in my office.

 

DS

[Adrianvs]

If the flag holes were for Gay Pride flags, the vandalism would be considered a hate crime. As it stands, I think it is a hate crime against 285 million Americans.

 

If the individuals are caught, may I suggest some of Saddam's law enforcement techniques that they seem to be upset were discontinued?

[eisely]

I always felt that one of the biggest mistakes that the anti war movement made during the Viet Nam era was to stigmatize and abuse returning veterans. It appears that some still have not learned that lesson.

[Hunt]

The best reaction to this would have been to quietly drill out the holes and not publicize the crime at all. That would have been the best punishment for the perpretrator.

[Eamonn]

While I agree and echo all the sentiments so far.

I do feel that it is great that Scouts and Cub Scouts are alive and well in this "Nuclear Free Zone."

As these young people become the leaders I have to wonder what their feelings will be when they take charge.

Will this protest leave an impact on them?

I happen to think that it will.

Todays protest.

Tomorrow's bad memory.

Eamonn

[Adrianvs]

Unfortunately, the "protest" had nothing discernable to do with the town's "nuclear-free" status. It was not an intelligent protest against some phenomenon; it was an anonymous act of vandalism preventing the posting of American flags. Given the nature of the vandalism, the "protest" may have been against the use of synthetic fibered flags, the war in Iraq, the idolatry of saluting the flag, the bicameral legislature used in the US government, the naming of the country after an Italian, the recent partial birth abortion ban, the hunting of the buffalo, the extinction of the dodo, the use of fossil fuels by contemporary society, or any other issue related to the nation or flag.

 

What the vandalism teaches our children is that the appropriate response to a situation we do not like is to break or attack or deface something anonymously.

 

Unless we tell otherwise..