In West L.A., Across Nation, Americans Rally Round the Flag

They began to gather outside AAA Flag and Banner in West Los Angeles an hour before the store’s opening Thursday: White. Black. Asian. Latino. Bush voter. Gore voter. Gay. Straight. Young. Old. Hip. Square.

They lined up, more than 100 at a time, all with one thing in common: They wanted to commit the simplest act of patriotism. They wanted to wave the American flag.

“This is the least I can do for our country out of respect for the people who got killed,” said Dorothy Johnson, 56, a disabled medical clerk buying flags for her car and the window of her home in West Los Angeles.

Across the nation, Americans were rushing to do the same. Flag suppliers and manufacturers in Georgia and Michigan reported unprecedented sales, and major retailers said they have sold all flags they had in stock.

All 10 AAA Flag and Banner locations, from Orange County to San Francisco to Miami, were jammed with customers who by afternoon had nearly wiped out their stock.

“They’re getting what they want, and money is not the object,” said Kirk Stamps, 48, manager of the West L.A. outlet. “They just want to show their patriotism.”

Misty Pearlman, 44, a computer researcher from Beverly Hills, was wearing a flag-patterned blouse and waiting to buy flags for her car and her balcony, for her mother and for her dog.

“It shows the world that our way of life was attacked and our American freedom was attacked and we were all attacked,” she said. “The terrorists want us to slink away with our tails between our legs, and we just won’t do it.”

Standing just ahead of her in line was Michael Jones, 45, who is program coordinator for an AIDS project aimed at minorities in South Central.

“This sends the message we’re all united, no matter who we are,” he said. “We are all people and we feel the same pain.”

Throughout Los Angeles, Old Glory could be seen flapping from car windows--the way that, only a few months ago, Laker flags had.

People were buying those $8 window flags by the armload from the AAA store at Pico Boulevard and Crest Drive.

Even as they made their purchases, some worried that patriotism would build into a dangerous nationalism. “Hopefully, we’ll be very, very cautious and not do to others what they did to us,” said Jan Richter, a Swedish emigre, as he waited to buy a flag for his house. “We need cool heads.”

Still, flags served as a small salve to a national wound. Major League Baseball announced it will give out flags to all fans attending games Monday.

New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged Americans to fly flags, as did Los Angeles Councilman Dennis Zine.

Read Johnson, vice president of Fox Sports in Los Angeles, stood in line outside AAA Flag and Banner for 45 minutes before shelling out $166 for flags for his Hidden Hills home, his car and those of friends. He exulted in the show of solidarity, something he’d missed when he’d been a U.S. Navy lieutenant in Vietnam.

“This makes me feel great,” Johnson said.