A Banner Day : Flag Observances Come in Many Different Stripes

Burned by Boy Scouts, frozen by nuclear activists, serenaded by hundreds of schoolchildren and marketed to Japanese tourists, Old Glory took center stage Thursday on its official national holiday.

From 83-year-old Floyd Foran’s front porch to the newest star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the familiar patchwork of red, white and blue waved on, seemingly oblivious to the ongoing debate about its sanctity being waged in the nation’s Capitol.

Flag Day is the bastard child of patriotic holidays, always upstaged by the flashy Fourth of July and the reverent Veterans and Memorial days. Flag Day began officially in 1916 and June 14 was chosen because, on that date in 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Stars and Stripes as the nation’s flag.

But Monday’s Supreme Court ruling against a proposed law to protect the flag from desecration, followed by President Bush’s vow to continue the yearlong fight for a constitutional amendment, was a common topic of conversation among Flag Day participants.

“I’m with the President. If that’s what it takes, we should do it,” said Thomas (Ski) Demski, who has flown a giant flag outside his Long Beach home for the last 10 years. “You have to think about what it represents.”

On Flag Day, Demski organized his annual flag raising, inviting 500 elementary schoolchildren to witness the event. The wind picked up as he used his drill motor to raise the 47-by-82-foot flag, causing it to stick on a light and necessitating an encore of the national anthem.

Wearing a blue shirt, red shorts and white socks, Venice Beach activist Jerry Rubin unveiled his frozen flag at the Federal Building in Westwood.

As he pulled a plastic garbage bag off a flag his brother, Marty, had kept in a deep freeze since Monday, Rubin’s explanation for his antics was filled with puns and innuendo.

“I’m wondering if anyone is as burned up as I am about this proposed constitutional amendment,” Rubin said. “It would have a chilling effect on our Bill of Rights.”

Rubin said the ice also represented the nuclear weapons freeze supported by his group, the Los Angeles Alliance for Survival.

He dropped the frozen flag to the ground, cracking the ice, as 15 reporters and photographers recorded the moment.

Constantin Niculescu, who immigrated from Romania six years ago, shook Rubin’s hand after the media retreated.

“I’m a Republican, I’m totally against flag burning,” Niculescu said. “But his (Rubin’s) protest is much more decent.”

Niculescu, who was at the Federal Building seeking a permit to protest communist oppression in his homeland, said it is “disgusting” to see the American flag burned, but he doesn’t mind the burning of Soviet flags, “because the red in the Russian flag stands for blood.”

Members of the Communist Youth Party threatened to steal Rubin’s show by burning a flag at the Federal Building at the same time. But they never appeared.

Across town at the downtown Federal Building, opponents of U.S. policy in El Salvador scrubbed an American flag stained red to symbolize getting the “blood” out.

Foran, who has been flying a flag outside his Los Angeles home on virtually all national holidays for more than 50 years, called those who chose to deface the flag “stupid.” But, he said, “if they want to be stupid let them.”

He said he flies his flag more out of habit than anything else these days.

“I guess I’m as patriotic as anybody else. I’m an old man.”

On Flag Day, Foran’s was the only flag flying in his neighborhood.

The local flag burning Thursday did not result in controversy.

Six Boy Scouts from a Hollywood area troop retired the flag of the Kingsley Manor retirement community Thursday evening by burning it in a barbecue. The flag was about 2 years old and very faded and worn out, said the manor’s security officer, Lt. Dwight C. Dupee.

“They played taps . . . from a tape recording,” Dupee said. “It was very nice.”

But an anonymous caller to The Times complained that a tattered and dirty flag that should be similarly retired still waved over the Witt-Thomas Productions building in Vernon. The vacant warehouse was the former sound stage for the now-defunct television program “Beauty and the Beast.”

Composer John Philip Sousa was awarded the 1,914th star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, as the U.S. Marine Corps Band played one of his best known marches, “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Art Bartner, director of the USC marching band, which also played at the unveiling, called the tune “our second national anthem.”

Within minutes of the ceremony, tourists were again walking up and down the row of remembrances, stopping to point out Janet Jackson’s plaque four stars away.

Don McWhorter, the attendant at the parking lot nearest Souza’s star, reflected on the significance of Flag Day. As a Korean War veteran, McWhorter said he feels protective of the flag, but then again he understands the younger generation’s cynicism.

“Young people see what happened to the veterans of other wars and they don’t want to fight for their flag anymore,” he said.