|
|
||
State Senate committee approves bill giving homeowners right to fly U.S. flag Date published: 2/4/2010
BY CHELYEN DAVIS RICHMOND --With no opposition, a Virginia Senate committee yesterday approved Sen. Richard Stuart's bill to allow homeowners to fly the U.S. flag.The bill was prompted by a case in Henrico County last year, in which a homeowners association barred a 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient from flying the flag on an upright flagpole in his yard. The association told retired Col. Van T. Barfoot that he could fly the flag from an angled pole attached to his house, but that the upright pole was an "aesthetic" problem. Stuart, R-Westmoreland, said that made him angry. His bill would allow homeowners to "properly display" the flag according to federal rules. A homeowners association that wants to ban the flying of a flag would have to prove that it would create "substantial harm" to the community. "What I've tried to do with this bill is strike a balance between the interests of the individual and his or her right to display a flag and the community itself," Stuart said. "It's my belief this should certainly be a fundamental right, to fly the flag of your country properly in accordance with the flag code." The Senate General Laws Committee approved the bill unanimously, with no questions and no one stepping forward to speak against it. The bill now goes to the full Senate for debate, and then to the House of Delegates. Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
@navyorchid: Lest you continue on with your misapprehensions about the ACLU, here's a story of how they went to bat for a Veteran and his right to fly the flag as an expression of his free speech.
http://www.aclu-sc.org/releases/view/103014
"when you have some commie ACLU idiot"
Fortunately, very few members of the ACLU are either Communists or idiots, except in the bizarre fantasies of those who equate protecting our rights as "un-American". In fact, were the ACLU to weigh in on a case like this, it would undoubtedly be in support of Barfoot's right to fly his flag, just as they have in the past, supported schoolchildrens' right to read their Bibles at lunchtime.
Have the members of the homeowners association lost sight of the fact that Col. Barfoot made it possible for Americans to fly the flag? His unselfish act that won him the Medal of Honor secured the right of all Americans to display the flag at their homes. It is high time that sanity returns to America!
enforcing the rule that states they must "properly display" the flag according to federal rules." Have you every driven past a home that has a faded, tattered, torn flag hanging on a rusted, handcrafted pole, at night, not properly illuminated?? It's fine to allow them to erect a flag pole and fly a flag but what happens when the pole is rusted and the flag is worn out?
Kudos to Senator Stuart! I remember reading this story and was disgusted that someone would not be allowed to properly display an American flag. I'm happy to see the outcome of this. Thank you for your service Col. Barfoot and keep flying that flag!
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
