Just a few miles down the road from IHateTheMedia.com’s intergalactic headquarters you’ll find the lovely little village of Orcutt, California. There’s trouble in Orcutt.
A private group raised $60,000 to erect a 60-foot flagpole and monument at the entrance to the community’s Old Town section. Since it’s located right between a freeway exit and a park-and-ride lot, it may not be the most picturesque spot. But no one ever said patriotism had to be picturesque.
Plans for the monument show a 60-foot American flag surrounded by pillars representing each branch of the military.
So far, so good. But now The Weekly Standard reveals what happened when the State of California got involved:
The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), however, has stymied the effort, calling it an impermissible act of “public expression.”
The Orcutt Pioneer reports that, although the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA) “intends its flag as a tribute and symbol of freedom” — which would seem to be how most Americans would view their nation’s flag — “CalTrans sees it as a form of speech or expression, something more personal than patriotic.”
OTORA, a typical Tocquevillean-style private civil association, has been fundraising for over a year to collect the necessary $60,000 to build the flagpole and monument, above which would wave a 12-by-18-foot iteration Stars and Stripes. But CalTrans has declared that its policy forbids such efforts. In a letter to OTORA, CalTrans explains that it developed its policy in response to a ruling released by a 3-judge panel of the notorious Ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, a ruling that was issued in response to impromptu flag-hanging in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals? Who ever would have expected those patriots to make a decision like this?
Hang in there, Orcutt.
Source: Weekly Standard
