Long May It Wave -- but Not Like That
It will come as no surprise to many that much of what appears to be ailing the city of Los Angeles can be found at City Hall. A case can be made from all parts of the political spectrum that city officials often just can’t seem to get things done right, whether it’s paying attention at meetings or not sounding like rookie politicians every time there’s a budget question.
However, those looking for a more subtle, yet just as discouraging, clue to our city’s problems need look no farther than the Spring Street entrance to City Hall.
If you stand in front of the entrance to this grand public building (a building that has undergone tens of millions of dollars of retrofitting and renovation because of its importance to the city), you will see a row of U.S. flags. Not so bad, you might think, what with the nation at war and all. But if you look closer, you will see in the exact middle of that row a black POW/MIA flag.
Again, what’s wrong with that? Certainly this state has missing citizens who deserve to be remembered. The problem is this: That’s the wrong way to display the flags. The U.S. Code says, in part: “No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America.” Further, “the flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of states or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.” Finally, nothing in any of the legislation adopting the POW/MIA flag gives it precedence over any flag, much less the national one.
But what’s really wrong with this situation is that nobody at City Hall knew enough or cared enough to find out the proper way to display both flags. It appears that they simply chose what was to them the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement and put it up, flag codes and hundreds of years of tradition be damned.
Sure, this whole observation will come across as nitpicky. But true respect lies in getting the details right, and good intentions excuse neither ignorance nor apathy, two of the most insidious enemies of patriotism and civic-mindedness.
Furthermore, by disrespecting the U.S. flag, the symbol of the very thing for which our POWs and MIAs fought, and for which so many sacrificed, the city has managed to demonstrate its lack of understanding of basic American democratic principles: that no group is more important than the American people as a whole, so no flag on any building flies senior to the American flag.
No one seems interested in getting things right. And why should they? After all, most of the private and government buildings downtown have poorly flown flags. The flag situation makes the city center look like a place where nobody is concerned about, in one sense, details and image, but in a larger sense, honor and pride.