Disrespecting the U.S. Flag

UPDATED:
Brandi at Metroblogging Chicago posted a poignant "open letter to the Rogers Park Library" yesterday. She notes that the library flies a tattered flag.

To any observant person, this is sadly unsurprising. I've posted a few times about tattered U.S. flags that are flown in Rogers Park.

The most egregious example I have seen is at the U. S. Post Office on North Paulina, half a block north of Howard, where the flag has had holes deliberately cut into it (photos top left). I first saw it on January 28 and wrote about it the next day. It was still flying in the same condition on February 27, when I made a short video of it.

On November 14, 2006, I photographed a badly tattered flag flying above an auto insurance office at Devon and North Broadway in Rogers Park.

There is was, waving large and frayed, telling the whole that the owners of that business were either idiots who did not care about the public image they were projecting, or they were purposely disrespecting the flag and intentionally sending an unfriendly message.

Either way, it is shameful.

Another example is a horribly weather-beaten flag flying from an apartment window on North Wayne near West Morse Avenue in Rogers Park. The flag flew from a window for months in all kinds of weather, day and night, flapping against the rough brick. Again, what was the message, if any? Or was this person just lazy and/or stupid?

There are many more such displays to be seen in The Peoples Democratic Republic of Rogers Park.

Which brings me back to Brandi's letter, an excerpt of which I present below.

------------------------------------------------
An Open Letter to the Rogers Park Library
posted by Brandi. at 6:37 PM on March 27, 2007

Dear Friends at the Rogers Park Library,

....That is why, Rogers Park Library, it disturbs me to see the flag flying on your roof at all hours of the day and night. (A flag should only be flown at night as a sign of trouble. Are you in imminent danger, Rogers Park Library?) READ THE FULL LETTER...