News-Info-Alerts

Re: Another Flag Flap

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: August 12, 2003

"Sanibel council looks into POW/MIA flag issue

By KEVIN LOLLAR, klollar@news-press.com
 
Something seemed amiss when Sanibel residents Dick Mark and Ellis Robinson returned to the island from vacation last month.

Flying from the city-owned flag pole at Periwinkle Way and Lindgren Boulevard was a black-and-white POW/MIA flag.

In 1990, Congress passed a law that recognized the flag as “the symbol of our Nation’s concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.”

A noble idea, but out of place in an island paradise, Mark and Robinson thought.

“It did surprise us when we saw it on the Lindgren intersection,” Mark said. “We were curious why that flag versus all the other flags we might want on the island.

“Not that we’re opposed to the flag, but it struck us as odd on a sanctuary island to have a flag that’s a legitimate memorial to POWs and MIAs but also a memorial to one of the most divisive wars in the history of this country. That’s the opposite of what we want to do on Sanibel.”

Another objection, Mark said, is that the flag looks like a skull and crossbones when the wind isn’t blowing.

So the couple wrote a letter to the Sanibel City Council stating their opposition to flying the flag at the intersection and at city hall.

The council is now looking into any legal problems with flying the flag.

“It raises the issue of discrimination: What if the Ku Klux Klan wanted to fly a flag?” Councilman and World War II veteran Dick Walsh said. “People could come to us and say, ‘Look, we’d like to fly our flag, too.’

“It raised a question whether or not the POW flag was given special Congressional status to make it more akin to flying the American flag, state flag and city flag. Once you start flying other flags, the question is are you liable to get sued? I don’t know the answer.”

Mark and Robinson said other flags should be flown to honor the island’s many nonprofit organizations by flying their flags on a rotating basis.

The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, for example, could raise its flag for Earth Week, and the Sanibel Beautification Committee could fly a flag during City Beautiful Week.

“We have lots of great groups on the island, and some communities do that,” Mark said. “Clearly it makes sense on certain days when the POW flag is appropriate, but to have it there 365 days seemed odd.

“Frankly, this is the last thing we should have flying in the face of our visitors. For all I know they might be Asian and Vietnamese tourists.”

The couple’s objection to the POW/MIA flag rankled several Sanibel residents, who fired off their own letter to the council and The News-Press.

Among those signing the letter was Navy veteran Edward Meyers, who served in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean during World War II.

“They say the flag detracts from the mission of Sanibel as a nature preserve, but my thoughts are it’s just the opposite,” Meyers said. “My thoughts are, thank God American servicemen and their allies preserved the democracy and peace of the world.

“I sympathize with these peaceniks, but they don’t understand the real world.”

Mayor Steve Brown said the POW/MIA flag isn’t a statement of whether a particular war is good or bad.

“It shows support of our troops,” he said. “Obviously, I don’t have a problem with flying the flag: I helped raise one of them. I support our troops 100 percent, no matter where they are.”

As for Walsh:

“I’m a veteran of World War II, a combat veteran, so I’ve got some thoughts that I’m going to keep to myself.”

Published by news-press.com on August 12, 2003
©2001, The News-Press"