A Proclamation

GroveAtopia's city council meets this next Monday and among other things, including a second reading on an anti-nudity ordinance, (yes you read that correctly) the mayor is being asked to sign a proclamation that proclaims September as American Legion Month.  

That seems like a lovely idea, now doesn't it?  

GroveAtopia is fortunate to have a very active American Legion post.  Ours is Post 3473, and there is just no way to not know they are here.  

First, there is the building itself.  It's here on the west side of town, right there on Main Street next to the Sunshine General Store - our own natural food store that since 1976 has always, always been there, despite the comings and goings of other bigger, natural food stores.  Until very recently the American Legion building was a nondescript - dare I say it? - ugly building.

Then suddenly a few weeks ago someone started painting the side of the building, and it quickly became apparent that this was not a tagging activity.  Someone was painting something big, very big on the exterior walls of the American Legion building.  Day by day, detail by detail, the image emerged.

We also know the Legion for being the ones who make sure GroveAtopians do not forget the services of veterans.  They arrange the flags that appear up and down Main Street on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day.  They conduct the ceremonies that honor the military, veterans and their service to our country.  They don't let us forget and we shouldn't.

And they have the Tuesday night spaghetti feed, and the indoor garage sale, and see to it that the scholarships are given out.  We love the American Legion.

So then, let's approve their proclamation and get on with things.

But wait, let's read the proclamation first.  Oh dear, we can't.  It isn't on the city's website.  So we rely on our friends to let us know what the proclamation says.  Then we look it up and find that we are not the only ones who have been asked to approve such a proclamation.  Many, many cities in Oregon have been asked to do the same.  And by the looks of things they have gone ahead and signed the proclamation.  

I wonder if they read it?  I bet they did, but I also bet they were the only ones.  If their constituents had read it, things might not have gone so smoothly.

Here in GroveAtopia we tend to read these things, and when we read this proclamation we saw something that simply doesn't belong in a proclamation.

If I recall correctly, the last proclamation signed by the mayor declared September 28th to be Family Day - a day to eat dinner as a family.  Who could argue with that?

Proclamations run from serious to silly, but they rarely deal with items of real substance.  So one would think the proclamation declaring September to be American Legion Month would be the same.  And by and large it is.  

The one we are being asked to consider has lots of wheras's - 7 to be exact.  The first 4 are merely statements of fact, as are the last two.  It's the 5th whereas, that, while a statement of fact, the fact it states involves more than a recitation of the group's accomplishments.  Instead it tells us that the American Legion "continues to work for a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from desecration..." 

That's a fact, but signing this proclamation says we agree with all the whereas's it contains.  And we do, except for that one.

The right to desecrate our flag is protected by the 1st amendment of very Constitution our flag represents.  To use the flag to limit the freedoms that the flag itself represents defeats the very freedoms the flag stands for.

So should our council simply pass this proclamation and have the mayor sign it, thereby throwing the support of the citizens of GroveAtopia behind this constitutional amendment?  Of course not.  We should sign the proclamation, but without that particular whereas.

Guess what the painting on the side of the American Legion building turned out to be?  A huge, beautiful American flag.  The kind with golden fringe.  It doesn't show the stars, but the stripes are so huge and billowing you don't need the stars.  You know just what it is.   And it's enough for all of us to know how the American Legion feels about our flag.  But the great freedom of our country is that we don't all have to feel the same way.   

American Legion, we know you love the flag.  We love the flag too.  We love your flag.  But don't make everyone feel the same way you do.  Don't make us proclaim our support for your feelings about what the constitution should say about how we must treat our flag.  Let us each go our own way in this matter, because to do that is to truly support our flag.