Issue #26, September 22, 2006

FLYING ONE AMERICAN FLAG, OR A HUNDRED

By Renée Donlon

Patriotism as a pastime seems to be built into summers here on the East End. spectators drag coolers of beer and hotdogs down to the beach to watch the Fourth of July fireworks. On Main St., stores dress in red, white, and blue bunting to announce their summer sales, and, on the beach, mothers tell their kids to swim between the flags.

Now, with Labor Day a distant memory and the fifth anniversary of September 11th just recently celebrated, how did East Enders show their patriotism? The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork and the East End Bill of Rights Defense Committee took the lead with their Constitution Day Celebration. The event was held on September 17th, the 219th birthday of the document, and there in the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Sag Harbor, attendees took turns reading it aloud in its entirety. The first Constitution Celebration was organized last year in response to the impending renewal of the Patriot Act. “Unitarians are very involved with civil liberties,” explained Michael O’Neill, one of the planners of this event. “[We therefore] did not agree with parts of the Patriot Act that were unconstitutional, especially those that targeted foreigners.” In response, the reading was meant to reaffirm and remind us of the right that the constitution affords all citizens.

Before the reading, the congregation’s minister, the Rev. Alison Cornish, explained how America started with meeting houses as the centers of both social and civic life. “We named this [building] a meeting house in order to carry on that tradition. All are welcome to gather here to do important things, and reading the Constitution is a very important thing,” said Cornish.

Reading the document proved to be not only an important, but also a long thing. It took just over two hours to get from “We the People……” to the 27th amendment. Yet songs, such as “American the Beautiful” and early American hymns, sung by all the attendees after every twenty-five articles kept things lively. Also welcome were the occasional comments by Martha Potter, a retired US History teacher who gave concise background notes that helped put the Constitution into a historical context, giving the articles more meaning.

Jim Henry, who recently filed suit against the Town of Southampton on behalf of the congregation for infringement of their civil rights, added more serious comments. He referred briefly to the July 4th incident in which the Town, taking issue with the congregation’s anti-war posters, tried to keep the group from marching. It seems the Town felt peaceful protest had no place in the celebration of our nation’s freedom from oppression.

The Town of Southampton is currently wrestling with another question of patriotism. At a September 8th work session, the Town Board discussed a proposal to exempt the American flag from a town sign code that limits the number of flags that can be displayed to two. Under the sign code, flags also must measure sixty square feet or less.

While all Town Board members now sponsor the proposed legislation, Councilwoman Nancy Graboski and Councilman Steve Kenny originally had concerns about the possible implications of such a law. “Take a look at car dealerships,” Graboski said. “[They could have] forty, fifty, sixty American flags [on their properties], and not so much for making the statement of ‘I’m more patriotic than you,’ but more for that of ‘Can you see me?’”

Town Supervisor Patrick Heaney understands that the law could allow businesses to abuse the flag for advertising means, but ultimately he states that there has been “too much sacrifice associated with what the flag represents to allow the cheapening of its value by regulating it as if it were just another sign.” Conscious of that sacrifice, Heaney discussed his ideas with “a number of veterans” before he presented the proposed law to the Board. “I asked one veteran what he felt about [someone displaying] a hundred flags, and he said, ‘Let it be a hundred and one.’”

Assuming that an unlimited number of flags can denote patriotism, how do other East End towns match up? If one measures in terms of ordinances restricting the flag, East Hampton and Southold come out ahead as they have none that limit the number of flags one can display. If one measures by the Town Supervisor’s personal flying of the flag, Southampton and East Hampton tie. Southampton Supervisor Heaney displays one on his house, and, when asked why only one, he laughed and replied, “Well, it’s a little house.” East Hampton Supervisor McGintee also displays one “off his front porch, in proper form.” Southold Supervisor Scott A. Russell is a close second to their tie. He flies the flag at his home, but “not as often as [he would] like.”