FLAG: Please, respect Old Glory

On Monday, April 22, my wife and I were driving on Government Way nearing Kathleen Avenue. I happened to notice the American flag flying in front of a store. I noticed that it was really dirty, and most of all, it was only hanging by its upper corner. The bottom was not attached.

We went into the store, which did not have any customers at that time. I talked to a gentleman about the flag, and asked him to either fix it or take it down. We went out to look at it, and he said that he would take care of it right away. We left, feeling satisfied about it. On Saturday, April 27, we went by there again and it was still there in the same condition as before. This really upsets me for a number of reasons.

First of all, I spent 23 years in the U.S. Navy, defending that flag many of those years in the Vietnam area. Secondly, 58,479 of my brothers gave the ultimate sacrifice for that flag. I know that there are a lot more of us vets out there that feels the same way that I do about this. I feel that it is not too much to ask for store personnel to just walk the short distance to the flag pole and remedy the problem, as the many thousands of us surely walked many more and difficult miles to defend it.

R. LAMBERT

USN Ret.

Athol