'Inappropriate curtains'
<p>Curtis Benham, of Post Falls, recently received a notice from his neighborhood’s homeowners association that the flag in his front window was a violation of their covenants, conditions and restrictions. The notice cited “inappropriate curtains” as the violation.</p>
POST FALLS - The Post Falls American Legion is rallying behind a Navy veteran who received a violation notice from his neighborhood homeowners association for hanging an American flag in his window.
The flag was described on the bright orange ticket stuck to Curtis Benham's garage door as "inappropriate curtains."
After Benham, 81, and his supporters contacted media outlets and staged a small protest on his front lawn Monday, the Fieldstone Homeowners Association board decided to rescind the notice and plans to apologize to Benham, according to attorney Art Macomber.
"The board met about this issue," Macomber said. "The ticket should not have been issued ... the homeowner will not be penalized."
Benham and his wife, Isabel, have had the 3-foot-by-5-foot American flag hanging in the front window of their home on Thrush Court for a year and a half. When they received the notice last week, they were outraged.
"I am not using the flag as a curtain," Isabel said. "It's a symbol. It's my beloved flag."
Word of the violation notice quickly spread after the Benhams visited the Post Falls American Legion and began talking to other veterans who live in the neighborhood.
"We're rallying the troops," said Jacki Ackerman, a Fieldstone resident and member of the Post Falls American Legion Auxiliary. "This is America. You don't tell us we can't fly the flag."
Del DeMeritt, also a veteran and Fieldstone resident, said the violation notice was ridiculous.
"If it isn't derogatory and it isn't desecrating the flag and it isn't vulgar or foul, it's none of their business what is hanging in the window," he said.
The homeowners association contracts with a company to enforce the neighborhood's many codes, covenants and restrictions, or CCRs, Macomber said.
An employee of that company issued the notice, he said.
After being contacted by Isabel, the company referred the matter to the homeowner's association board. Macomber said the board acted quickly, meeting Monday to resolve the issue.
"The end result is there's nothing in the CCRs that give the board the ability to enforce a flag display rule," he said.
The Benhams are adamant that they would never remove the flag, no matter what action the homeowner's association took against them.
"I told my husband if I have to take down this flag, I don't want to live here," Isabel said. "I got so upset. This is America. We're supposed to be free."
Post Falls American Legion Cmdr. Steve Hanson was out of town Monday, but said in a telephone interview that he would like to meet with the board when he returns.
"I was outraged when I found out they were telling a veteran that he needs to take down his American flag," Hanson said. He said he was upset to learn that elsewhere in the neighborhood, residents are displaying the American flag at night without a light shining upon the flag.
That, he said, is a definite breach of flag etiquette.
"If it was me and I was president of the homeowners association, I'd be writing violations to everyone flying the American flag in the evening without it being lit up."
Hanson said the homeowners association uses space at the Legion post for its meetings.
"I might talk to the president of the homeowners association and say if you want to meet in this building, you're going to get a class on proper flag etiquette," Hanson said. "Maybe he doesn't understand Americanism, patriotism and why we have the right to fly that flag or hang it in our window."