We don’t often take note of vandalism. A little graffiti here, a couple of smashed windows there. It’s not good, and we don’t love it, but things happen. Unless they happen directly to you, it’s easy to shrug and go on, chalking it up to the price of doing business in a free society.
But the desecration of the flags on Garrison Avenue is a kick to the gut for all of us.
Some of us fly our flags all the time, and some are holiday flag fliers. But of all the days of the year, even more than Flag Day itself, the day to fly the flag with pride and humility and gratitude is Memorial Day. For years, Waldo Fisher, a Vietnam veteran, took his Darby Junior High School students to the U.S. National Cemetery in Fort Smith to decorate with flags, a tradition he continued even after he retired and even after his son fell in battle. We still feel a lump in the throat when we think of those respectful young people learning what duty and sacrifice really mean and what their cost can be.
In recent years, downtown Fort Smith, as part of its general spiffing up for the summer and for the Old Fort Days Rodeo Parade, and as sign of its commitment to patriotism, placed flags all down the avenue, bolted to parking meters, making downtown look festive and patriotic.
But sometime overnight Monday, an unknown vandal or vandals stole six flags and then bent or twisted the six-foot poles from which they hung.
The cost to replace the flags is not insignificant; at more than $500, it’s enough, say Fort Smith police, to make the crime a felony.
But there is more to it than that. Some bottom-feeder among us has disrespected those who gave all, disrespected our service members and veterans, and disrespected each of us
We hope the police solve this crime quickly and definitively. We hope that if you own a flag, you will fly it properly and often. And especially, we hope you will fly it for Memorial Day and for those who earned our right to be flying it.
