|
THE BATTLE OVER OL’ GLORY
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
May 31, 2013
We have heard it over and over
again: Board members of homeowners’ associations are trying to
prohibit homeowners to fly Ol’ Glory on their own private
property. And it seems that even the most expensive lawsuits
lost by HOAs can’t deter any other boards to stop this nonsense.
Newspapers and TV stations have
a field day with reporting about another case filling the pages
or creating a 3-minute news report. Hundreds of comments will be
posted under these reports and about every one of the
commentators will slam the “stupid” and “unpatriotic” board
members.
I posted whole collections of
articles about flag wars on our websites:
http://www.ccfj.net/HOAartflag.html
The most famous case of a war
over “Ol” Glory” was most likely the case of the so-called
“Jupiter Flag Man” George Andres. It even attracted the
attention of Governor Jeb Bush, who donated a $100 bill to pay
for the daily fine levied by the homeowners’ association against
the former Marine. After years of battle in various courts
attorney Barry Silver, who represented former Marine George
Andres pro-bono, was finally able to collect $123,750 – courtesy
of the other owners of the Indian Creek Phase III-B
Homeowner's Association Inc. in Jupiter.
BAD AWAKENING FOR NEIGHBORS OF JUPITER FLAGMAN
But
don’t forget, that was only a small amount of the legal fees
this battle over Ol’ Glory has cost the association, because
their attorney sure didn’t work for free. Even the office of the
Attorney General – at that time Charlie Crist – got involved and
helped the Jupiter Flag Man win his case. In the end attorneys
made lots of money, paid by the neighbors of the Flag Man – and
the Star-Spangled
Banner in triumph still waved!
Many other boards followed suit
– with similar bad results – much to the pleasure of some
attorneys. If the flags are displayed in a proper manner –
what’s wrong with it? And since it’s our flag I can only repeat
what we hear so often in our community associations: If you
don’t like it – MOVE! But I guess that person has to move out of
the country, since this is still the US National Flag – last I
heard!
A question
to board members: WILL YOU EVER LEARN?
|
