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It's Time to Revisit Your City's Flag Policy

After the death of the racist, sexist, homophobic (I could go on) friend of Donald Trump – Charlie Kirk – Trump ordered
the lowering of all American flags to half-mast. Most municipalities complied, including Sebastopol and Santa Rosa. I don’t know about the others in Sonoma County. The city council members did not know about it because it was done by the city clerks in accordance with current flag policies.

When I saw the lowered flags, I wrote to my activist email list and asked people to contact their city councils and some of you did. So, by the time you read this, Sebastopol will have considered a slight revision in its flag policy at its October 7 meeting. I have been told that Santa Rosa will be doing the same, but it has yet to appear on an agenda.

Sebastopol’s flag policy covers many things, such as special flags they have agreed to fly, for example, ones for their July 3 fireworks celebration and the Apple Blossom Festival. But it also says that the city cerk will do whatever the president says to do (obviously not in those words). The new flag policy makes it a decision in consultation with the mayor. Therefore, if there is even a moderate mayor or a cowardly mayor, the flag will still be lowered. It has been suggested that the decision be made by both the mayor and vice-mayor and, if they don’t agree, the flag will not be lowered.

There are no standards for this decision. One could be a murderer, as some of those pardoned by Trump are. One could be a child molester or perpetrator of domestic violence, as almost everyone Trump knows is. One could believe in creating a theocracy or curtailing the rights of groups of people, as Charlie Kirk did.

At the very least, it must be clear that anyone suggesting curtailing any group’s civil rights cannot be honored in any way by our cities or county. Forget the bullshit about polite discourse between people who disagree on civil rights. There can be no discussion on that because it implies that taking away people’s civil rights is a viable position. In a democracy, that must be a non-starter. The Pledge of Allegiance ends with the words “with liberty and justice for ALL.” If you don’t believe that – and Charlie Kirk did not – then we shouldn’t lower the flag.

What might a positive position be? Possibly that the person honored must have done something to advance the equality of all people or to improve their lives (not the same as giving them whatever they want and not people who improve the lives of some while taking away the rights of others). This will never be perfect, of course, but some examples are so egregious, as Kirk was, that it’s a no-brainer. This cannot be the apartheid country that it once was. We shouldn’t even discuss going backwards.

As Nikole Hannah-Jones (scholar on the 1619 Project) says, this country has reached the point where “expressing explicit bigotry no longer relegates one to the fringes of political discourse.” There are people within government who are now advocating taking the vote from women or resurrecting slavery. These are people who must never be honored.
Too bad that we’ll have to lower the flag for Trump (if there’s a country left), but we probably can’t exclude a president.

I think the proposal from Sebastopol needs to go back to the drawing board. It will take a while to craft something better, so this could be an interim step. But a person who denigrated so many groups of Americans should never be honored again.

Please ask your city council what was done in your city. I drove by the Sonoma County main building and no flag was flying. Compromise? I don’t know. If you live in Sebastopol or Santa Rosa, I hope you’ll let your city council know what you think and expect.If you live in another city that lowered the flag, please contact them. If your city did not lower the flag, please thank them.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has asked, “If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?” And I’ll note that the people who honor Kirk also believe that one should lose one’s job for repeating his words. And when they honor him, they never repeat his words. We’re in Alice’s Wonderland. Or, I guess, it’s Orwell’s.

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by Susan Collier Lamont

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