I have told myself I was going to write a Letter to the Editor to the Source one too many times without actually doing it. Here goes, I will not rant:
Location: The Shell station at Greenwood and 27th Street on Memorial Day.
Situation: A couple of hundred plastic US flags stuck in the ground to celebrate Memorial Day.
The Problem: At least half of the flags were not just touching, but almost lying on the grass or dirt. Many were in terrible shape and filthy. They were all made in China (I checked). The place displaying them sells gasoline that is made from crude from places like Saudi Arabia (albeit, a relatively small percentage).
When I mentioned it to the M.O.D, the fellow was quite apologetic – it seemed he had no idea it is disrespectful for a flag to touch the ground or be displayed in a ratty condition. To his credit, he seemed to understand that it has importance. No doubt, I was the first to bring it up.
That’s it. That is all I have to say about it.
Greg Ouellette, Bend
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2008.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Greg
I agree and understand what you are saying and I know that the owner of that Shell station, Kent Couch, is probably heart-sick at the notion that his patriotic display may have offended anyone to any degree.
I disagree with your paragraph titled “The Problem”. The flags touching the ground and their condition is justfiably correct but where the flags were made and where the oil came from to produce the gasoline is going a bit too far.
Why didn’t you just go to the side of the station where a very large BBQ was in operation to feed any american veteran and their families, for FREE, and the coffee hut was treating all to free coffee with their meals and Pepsi was donating their products and ask for a hand in correcting the issue. You would have had about 100 veterans willing to help at the whisper of your concerns.
Thank you Kent Couch for your undying support for veterans and their families every year on Memorial Day, thank you for your constant support to the community in many ways and also, Kent, thank you for your honest, clean and well managed business supporting the needs of the community.
Greg, next year come sit down and join us for a bite and afterwards any of us would be happy to see that the patriotic display of flags is in perfect order.
rra, bend
rra,
the main problem ideed is/was with the flag display. i also mentioned the fact that the flags are made in a communist country and a percentage of american crude comes from unsavory countries to point out the fact that we americans consume without much thought. many of the war dead memorial day is memorializing died in opposition to communism and more recently in the mid east for ‘depends who you ask’.
i am not questioning the good intentions of the shell station owner. but, when we choose to display the american flag, it should be given careful thought. most people have no idea how to properly display the flag. check this link out: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html
i appreciate your invitation. if i am in town i will come by.
greg
Ouellette: The flag doesn’t know where it’s made. The oil doesn’t know where it came from. The flag flags and the oil oils. That ‘attachment’ to origination is yours. While you were busy being ‘attached’ to this minutia, you missed the entire point of what good was going on all around you at that location.
HI Larry,
At the time I drove by there was no BBQ going on. The point of flag etiquette remains valid. It is not minutia. Did you read my initial reply to rra? And using ‘quotes’ around words in emails to people you dont know is normally considerd diminutive. I dont need any lessons on patriotism, trust me on that one.
Respectfuly,
greg
Oulette: I wasn’t emailing you. This is not email. I don’t know what your email address is… and if I did know it… I wouldn’t use it, I’d burn it. I was posting a comment to a public thread. I don’t give a tinkers ‘damn’ what you think about quotation marks. If you feel diminutive about such trivia, well, that sounds like a personal problem. Get professional help.
I wasn’t offering any lessons on patriotism. I was offering a lesson on how to remove your head from your ass by means of your possible adoption of a more enlightened view of reality. It is clear that you are obsessed by where oil comes from, for instance, which is asinine. Ask the oil if it gives a shit where it comes from…
Greg has a valid point. Honoring our military is admirable. However, it does somewhat defeat the purpose to honor them with non-American-made products.
Greg addressed this in a thoughtful and respectful manner, both in his letter and seemingly in person. rra’s comment did the same. In fact, I learned something from both of them.
Larry Delbert’s comment fell short. Larry, you could have said something to the effect of: “I must disagree. I find that the effort and patriotism put into the Shell’s Memorial Day celebration far outweighs where the flags were made, or that some points of ettiquette were not followed.”
See? Though and respect are none so hard.
I am grateful to the Shell station for their community involvement, and proud to give my business to a business that gives back. And I’m proud to be a member of a country that does have high standards for the treatment of our flag.
rra had the best idea–next year, let’s eat BBQ and then make sure the flags are properly displayed.
Cheers,
-Ginger
Ginger: I don’t suffer fools gladly. Having a concern about where crude oil comes from displays a deluded mentality that I have no patience with. Does Ouellette get all frantic about where the water in a lake comes from? After all, the rain that filled the pond may have blown over this way from Saudi. When you stick your toes in the ocean should one be concerned about where that water may have been? “Oh, my God, this water was on the beaches of Arabia six months ago!” This kind of misplaced concern for meaningless, might I say mindless, minutia only demonstrates the small mindedness of the deluded so concerned. My point in asking if the oil or the flag gives a damn where it came from was an attempt to enlighten the individual to the awareness level where it would occur to him that his point of view was internal rather than external, i.e., his warped view is all about him, his internal paranoia and personal politics, not about the oil or the flag.
I agree that the flag should be treated with respect because of what it is symbolic of. However, where the flag was made has no effect on that symbol. What it is a symbol of remains, regardless of origin… therefore the distinction is in the mind of the observer, not in the flag itself. With a correct view…a flag is a flag… oil is oil… and nothing more.
I am not frantic deluded, warped or paranoid. Nor do I store my head in my ass.
You carry a lot of anger and an obvious inability to be reasonable when you are in disagreement. It is ok to disagree with some of what someone says and disagree with another part. If you ever want to enlighten people as you keep mentioning, this approach, including all the profanity, will get you nil. Absolutely nothing. It would seem you are the one mired in your views that it seems you are dead certain of and beyond discussion.
The origin of anything can make a difference. One may choose not to buy a pair on sneakers that were made in a sweat shop because one may not want to financially support that company. True, the sneaker doesnt know where it came from, but the owner of that shop surely knows that he is making more money by producing a product in that manner. As a consumer, we always have a choice.
It seems you are getting hung up on the origin of the flag and oil comments. You never made mention of my main point until near the end of your 3rd post. I am done posting on this.
And Larry, what makes you think Ginger was emailing you? By the way, my email is ‘failupward@yahoo.com’. Now you can print it out and burn it. Good luck in life. I really mean it.