October 20, 2001
Believe It or Not, Some Object To Current Displays of Patriotism

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

It seems strange to me, but some people object to patriotic displays of the US flag or posting of signs that say “God Bless America.” The latter is a phrase that almost every recent president uses in times of national danger or stress. Yet some people worry that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Personally, I think the constitution says that there must be no state-sponsored religion, or tax support for a religion, not that the government or government agencies cannot mention a generic deity. But then, what do I know. I have been wearing a flag on my lapel—given to me by a pro-gun state senator in New York state four days after the terrorist attacks.

But while I was being pinned with the flag, The Palm Beach Post reported that a Boca Raton, FL, company had its managers confiscate some American flags from employees’ cubicles, saying other workers might find them offensive.

NCCI Holdings Inc., a company that compiles workers compensation insurance data, told its 850 Boca Raton employees that displays of nationalism had no place in the office.

“Divisive statements or actions, political or religious discussions and anything else that could be divisive or mean different things to different people are not appropriate in our work environment,” Chief Executive Officer Bill Schrempf said in a memo to employees.

Several employees complained about the flag prohibition. One employee said she was suspended and told to go home when she refused to remove a small flag from her desk. The company refused to confirm whether it had asked any employees to leave.

NCCI did observe a moment of silence at noon on Sept. 14, gathering its workers in the headquarters’ atrium, and later rescinded the policy on flag display—largely do to reaction on the Internet. As a result, the company apologized and handed out paper flags and patriotic lapel pins to its employees.

School Children
Most Americans, including children, want to show their national pride by wearing the colors of the United States flag, but in Passadena, TX, two children who wore T-shirts showing their pride in the American flag, were told it wasn’t appropriate, according to a News2Hous-ton report.

Because Sept. 15 was deemed a national day of prayer and remembrance by President Bush, Desert Storm veteran Donnie Meyer wanted to pass on patriotism to his two daughters. So, he allowed his 7-year-old and 9-year-old to wear T-shirts with the American flag emblazoned on them to school at McMasters Elementary School.

He never thought there would be a problem. However, the school’s principal asked 7-year-old Ashley to change her shirt because it wasn’t part of the school’s dress code.

A majority of the public seems to support expressions of patriotism since the terrorist attacks, and anyone who goes against the tide risks suffering a public backlash, as the following Associated Press items indicate.

New Jersey
After getting an earful from angry residents, School Superintendent Louis Ripatrazone in Roxbury, NJ, rescinded his order to remove “God Bless America” from school signs. He thought a religious reference might be offensive at school.

In Fort Myers, FL, the head librarian at Florida Gulf Coast University apologized for ordering employees to remove “Proud to be an American” stickers to avoid offending foreign students.

Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) posted a police guard outside his congressional district office in Lowell, MA, after receiving threatening phone calls. A newspaper had quoted Meehan as saying he didn’t believe Air Force One was targeted by terrorists, the reason the White House gave for delaying President Bush’s return to Washington the day of the attacks. Meehan said his views were misrepresented, and that he believed Bush has done “an excellent job.”

In Berkeley, CA, firefighters were ordered not to fly large US flags from their trucks because officials feared the rigs would be targeted by anti-war protesters. After the city received a blistering response from around the nation, fire officials apologized and issued smaller flags to fly on the trucks.

Sign of the Times
Since Sept. 11, one image has become worth much more than a thousand words—it has turned into a symbol of a new era in America, according to Fox News.

Eliza Gauger, a 17-year-old from Bellingham, WA, sketched a picture titled “Mommy Liberty,” (shown here) the day after the terrorist attacks. What took the teen five minutes to design, has become a national phenomenon.

The image has made the rounds on the Internet, run in newspapers and been pasted on T-shirts, mugs and tote bags that are being snapped up by the hundreds. Gauger is donating all funds raised from the image to the Red Cross.

After creating the image with a watercolor design program on her computer, Gauger posted it on her on-line journal. Within 10 minutes she began receiving responses, and by the following day had received around 50 e-mails and 20 postings—mainly positive—on her website, members.home.net/elizagauger.

“Instead of writing an essay or a monologue or a song, which a lot of peers were doing, I express myself better through art,” she said. “I could’ve described her standing there but it wouldn’t be the same . . . Art affects something differently. If you’re just looking at something with your eyes, it goes right to your soul.”

Gauger said the nationwide calls for peace at a candlelight vigil ignited her creativity.

“Everyone was standing up to the mic saying things like ‘give peace a chance’ and ‘no retaliation,’ but I don’t think these people were thinking clearly about this man or what he’s capable of accomplishing if we don’t protect ourselves,” the high school senior said of Osama bin Laden.

CafePress.com, an online outlet for artists to submit and sell their work, has been selling Gauger’s design through a program established to benefit victims of the Sept. 11 tragedies.

“Hers is the top seller,” said Maheesh Jain, vice president of business development for the website.

Jain considers the design an “Internet phenomenon.” He’s even received the image in e-mail from friends outside the business.

“It’s just caught on and spread like wildfire,” he said. “A lot of the other designs are straight-forward patriotic, but hers has a different tone to it.”

Gauger has received responses from around the world—thanks from Italy, kudos from troops aboard an aircraft carrier, praise from Australia and support from mothers around the country.

Criticism has been rare, and is usually related to the gun Mommy Liberty is holding.

“Someone from the National Guard e-mailed me and said he wanted to use the image in a newsletter but couldn’t print it if it had a gun in it, and asked if I could change it to a sword,” she said. But Gauger would not exchange one weapon for another.

“There’s absolutely no way that I can make people interpret it the way that I can—and that’s one of the dangers and the joys of art,” she said.

Gauger also found herself receiving mail from pro-gun groups and responded to them with a message explaining the image in further detail. The explanation is now posted on her website, and reads, in part:

“My own mother deplores guns of all kinds, having been held at gunpoint when she was about three years old by her abusive, screaming father. But if she felt she had to protect me or my brother, she would pick up anything she could to defend us. That’s what I wanted to represent. The torch of freedom replaced by the gun of defense.”