Flags

On Veterans Day, the flags come out and marching bands play patriotic airs, but the celebration is tempered with somber reflection. In Media, as in towns across the country, the efforts of veterans were recalled with parades, pageantry, and poignancy on Saturday.

In the Mayfair business district, the Flags and the Placards slug it out. No, two gangs haven't converged there for a turf battle. Rather, merchants continue to debate whether bright yellow flags or new placards should decorate the main shopping strips of Mayfair on Frankford Avenue and Cottman Avenue. The issue arose out of discontent among the merchants because they can't put up holiday lights. Some merchants want to get rid of the flags and install lighted signs that also would provide the wiring they need for holiday lights.

Students of American history know that this year marks the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. But how many youngsters can remember when the state of Pennsylvania ratified the Bill of Rights? No less an authority than Thomas Jefferson (portrayed by Bill Barker) will answer that question on Sunday at Carpenters Hall in Independence National Historical Park. Jefferson will preside over "A Festival of Flags," unveiling a year-long exhibit of flags representing the states that ratified the Bill of Rights.

Do you know Philadelphia has its own "Christmas menorahs" of sorts? I never heard of such things until I read my niece's wonderful story book, "The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate," by Janice Cohn. The book tells the story of Jewish residents of Billings, Mont., victimized by a hate-mail campaign apparently organized by racist groups in the area. The situation reached a horrific crescendo at the holiday season when the town's only synagogue was vandalized, bomb threats were made and two families' menorahs were trashed.

Step right up! Own a professional football team for a mere $430. A chance at the crumbled Cowboys or feckless Falcons? "Fraid not. In this league the players don flags instead of pads. But Darryl E. Jones, president and commissioner of the spanking new Continental Flag Football League, says pigskin buffs will shell out $7 apiece to sit on brittle bleachers for the pleasure of watching February football. Flag February football. "This is just as exciting as football with pads, just as physical," said Jones, 23, a Bronx, N.Y., native, in an interview.

  Flags to be lowered to honor fallen Marine TRENTON - Gov. Christie has ordered flags at all state buildings to be flown at half-staff Friday to honor a fallen Marine corporal. The flags will be lowered in tribute to Derek Kerns, 21, of Woodstown, who was killed last week in a training mission in Morocco. Kerns joined the Marines in September 2008, shortly after he graduated from Woodstown High School. He was a MV-22 crew chief with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261, Marine Aircraft Group 26MV-22, and was based at New River Air Station in North Carolina.

Eighteen youths from four Burlington County communities have been charged with stealing at least 33 U.S. flags from the lawns and porches of about two dozen Delanco homes over the Presidents' Day weekend. Police said 17 males and one female from Delanco, Delran, Palmyra and Riverside - ranging in age from 14 to 17 - were charged between Friday and Sunday "The flags were stolen as a lark by the juveniles and did not involve any political or anti-war significance," said Delanco Patrolman Kevin Russell.

More than 100 emotional demonstrators of Ukrainian, Armenian and Latvian descent shook their fists at City Hall yesterday protesting the removal of their national flags from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. While the furious protestors chanted their anger outside City Hall, a spokeswoman for Mayor Goode was telling the media that the mayor had ordered the flags restored. The demonstration broke up with the protestors never knowing they had won a victory. Later, Orysia Hewka, director of the Ukrainian Education and Cultural Center, said she was "totally delighted," to hear the city had relented.

Military historians call it an anomaly. American naval flags of this pedigree simply don't exist — not after nearly two centuries. They're shredded by heavy winds and rain at sea, cannibalized to patch other flags, and eventually lost to time. But the colors that flew over the U.S.S. Constitution — like "Old Ironsides" itself — have survived, through long voyages across the globe, wars, and battles with pirates. They were purchased by Virgil Parris of Maine at a government auction following the iconic vessel's retirement from active service in 1855, and his grandson sold them to the late collector H. Richard Dietrich Jr. of Chester County in 1964.

The flags are black, white, green and red, and they flutter outside scores of stone houses and shacks, in more than a dozen villages and refugee camps. They are the flags of the Palestinian people and the PLO, and they are illegal in Israeli-occupied territory. The displays of the flags are one of the widespread symbols of rebellion in the nearly eight-month-old intifadah, or uprising, by the Palestinians. While stones and Molotov cocktails are aimed at provoking and injuring Israeli soldiers, hanging Palestinian flags from trees and telephone poles is designed to send another message.

In Friday's issue, parts of this story were garbled or left out because of a production error. The entire story is reprinted here. Outside her Mount Ephraim elementary school, little Kristen Coffman saw scores of classmates and teachers holding tiny flags - and two fire trucks with a much larger banner suspended between tall ladders. A motorcade with wailing sirens and loud rumbling motorcycles passed beneath it and pulled up a few feet away. Thursday was a big day for Mary Bray Elementary - and for Kristen, who thought she had been chosen to give a bouquet of red, white, and blue flowers to Mount Ephraim Mayor Joe Wolk as part of a military appreciation day. Instead, the freckled 8-year-old was stunned to see her mother, Army Lt. Candice Bujak, briefly home from Afghanistan after nearly a year.

Outside her Mount Ephraim elementary school, little Kristen Coffman saw scores of classmates and teachers holding tiny flags — and two fire trucks with a much larger banner suspended between tall ladders. A motorcade with wailing sirens and loud rumbling motorcycles passed beneath it and pulled up a few feet away. This was a big day for Mary Bray Elementary — and for Kristen, who thought she had been chosen to give a bouquet of red, white, and blue flowers to Mount Ephraim Mayor Joe Wolk as part of a military appreciation day. Instead, the freckled 8-year-old was stunned to see her mother, Army Lt. Candice Bujak, briefly home from Afghanistan after nearly a year.

Military historians call it an anomaly. American naval flags of this pedigree simply don't exist — not after nearly two centuries. They're shredded by heavy winds and rain at sea, cannibalized to patch other flags, and eventually lost to time. But the colors that flew over the U.S.S. Constitution — like "Old Ironsides" itself — have survived, through long voyages across the globe, wars, and battles with pirates. They were purchased by Virgil Parris of Maine at a government auction following the iconic vessel's retirement from active service in 1855, and his grandson sold them to the late collector H. Richard Dietrich Jr. of Chester County in 1964.

  Flags to be lowered to honor fallen Marine TRENTON - Gov. Christie has ordered flags at all state buildings to be flown at half-staff Friday to honor a fallen Marine corporal. The flags will be lowered in tribute to Derek Kerns, 21, of Woodstown, who was killed last week in a training mission in Morocco. Kerns joined the Marines in September 2008, shortly after he graduated from Woodstown High School. He was a MV-22 crew chief with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261, Marine Aircraft Group 26MV-22, and was based at New River Air Station in North Carolina.

Gov. Corbett today ordered all Pennsylvania state flags in the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg and at commonwealth facilities in Philadelphia County to fly at half-staff through Saturday to the honor the two city firefighters who died battling a warehouse fire in Kensington on Monday. Viewing and funeral services are set for Friday and Saturday for Lt. Robert Neary, 60, and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney, 25, both assigned to Ladder 10. A viewing and memorial for Neary is for 4 p.m. Friday at Givnish Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Rd., in Northeast Philadelphia.

SOMEONE WAS out to offend just about everyone in Chester County, it seems. In an act that managed to be both unpatriotic and sacrilegious, an American flag was stolen from the West Grove Presbyterian Church, burned and left in a puddle sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, State Police said. The church, on West Evergreen Street in West Grove, has flown an American flag on its sign out front for quite some time, said church Pastor Charlie Gross, who noted that the flag was there when he came on board a year ago. "This church is very patriotic," said Gross, who retired from the Delaware Air National Guard as a lieutenant colonel after 24 years of service.

SOMEONE WAS out to offend just about everyone in Chester County, it seems. In an act that managed to be both unpatriotic and sacrilegious, an American flag was stolen from the West Grove Presbyterian Church, burned and left in a puddle sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, state police said. The church, on West Evergreen Street in West Grove, has flown an American flag on its sign out front for quite some time, said church Pastor Charlie Gross, who noted the flag was there when he came on board a year ago. "This church is very patriotic," said Gross, who retired from the Delaware Air National Guard as a lieutenant colonel after 24 years of service.

Retired Army Col. Van Thomas Barfoot, 92, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient who later made headlines for his fight to fly an American flag in his Virginia front yard, died Friday after suffering a fall earlier in the week. Col. Barfoot gained national attention in 2009 when he fought to keep his 21-foot flagpole at his Henrico County home after the homeowners association ordered it removed and threatened to sue him. The association later backed off, but Col. Barfoot's fight eventually led to a state law that makes it tougher for homeowners associations to restrict the flying of the U.S. flag.

PALISADES PARK, N.J. - A month before his controversial order to honor the late Whitney Houston by flying flags at half-staff, Gov. Christie rejected a bill that would have required the deaths of active New Jersey service members to be reported to local and county leaders to ensure a similar show of respect. Despite unanimous support from Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature, the Republican governor let the measure die by not signing it. That's known as a pocket veto. The bill is of renewed interest because of outrage that followed Christie's order to fly flags in the state at half-staff last Friday, the day before the New Jersey pop star's funeral.