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.

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.

Memorial Day seems to touch a nerve in small towns, where eating hot dogs, saluting veterans and waving flags was never considered corny. Yesterday, Lansdale, population 16,362, hailed its fallen heroes with all the pomp and pageantry it could muster as it recalled their sacrifices. An emotional ceremony in the Montgomery County borough drew about 200 people, who gathered to dedicate a memorial to 14 North Penn High School graduates who had died in Vietnam. Wreaths were laid and a white carnation was placed at the base by high school students at the reading of each name.

The flag hung from the house like a beacon, regardless of weather and sometimes in spite of it. It paid no tribute to country or ancestral motherland, but simply spoke of the nature of the home and the man who put it there. The bright, yellow smiley-face flag was the first thing my children spotted when we turned onto the street. "We're there!" they'd shout, their faces reflecting the flag itself. "Grandpop's!" Over countless visits, my children learned that flag had many messages to share.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration was warned as early as 2010 that electric-car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. was not meeting milestones set up for a half-billion-dollar government loan, nearly a year before U.S. officials froze the financing after questions were raised about the company's statements, newly released documents show. Vice President Biden announced in late 2009 that Fisker would reopen a shuttered former General Motors factory in Wilmington to produce plug-in, electric-hybrid vehicles.

State flags will fly at half-staff Thursday at all New Jersey government buildings after Gov. Christie issued an order to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. The order was among Twitter messages regarding the marathon that the governor sent out this week. "Please pray for Boston," he wrote in a tweet on Monday. "Our thoughts are with the runners, their families and those affected by this horrific tragedy. " President Obama has ordered U.S. Flags to fly at half staff until Saturday.

City Hall blossomed with Philadelphia pride Wednesday as elementary school students and civic leaders celebrated the 118th birthday of the city's flag - a unifying symbol that Mayor Nutter acknowledged "sometimes goes unnoticed in our daily lives. " Brenda Exon, cofounder of the nonprofit advocacy group Partners for Civic Pride, gave a history lesson on the Philadelphia flag, which depicts the city seal on a gold-and-sky-blue background. She said her group was trying to establish March 27, Philadelphia Civic Flag Day, "as an important day on the Philadelphia calendar.

BEIRUT - New video Thursday of U.N. peacekeepers held captive by Syrian rebels illustrates the sudden vulnerability of a U.N. force that had patrolled a cease-fire line between Israel and Syria without incident for nearly four decades. The abduction of the Filipino troops - soft targets in Syria's civil war - also sent a worrisome signal to Israel about the lawlessness it fears along the shared frontier if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ousted. Opposition fighters seized the 21 peacekeepers Wednesday near the Syrian village of Jamlah just a mile from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, a plateau Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

Bristol Township Police arrested five local residents this week who were part of the self-monikered "Black Flag Family," a group believed by police to be responsible for "a lot of chaos" in the area, according to Bristol Township Lieutenant Terry Hughes. A getaway driver, not considered to be a part of the gang, was also arrested. All of those taken into custody were between the ages of 17 and 24. The arrests centered around an incident on Feb. 20, when the suspects allegedly followed an unidentified minor off of a school bus and shot at him, according to police records.

When Haddonfield wrestlers look down, they also look back. And that's the best thing about their new uniforms. Haddonfield coach Bill Heverly said the replica American flag that adorns his wrestlers' singlets was placed on the leg as opposed to the chest or the back for a reason. "When they're tired and they look down, they can see it," Heverly said. "And hopefully, it will remind them, 'Don't give up nothing.' " The man who made that flag in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prisoner-of-war camp in North Vietnam was in Haddonfield's gymnasium Saturday morning.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - President Michel Martelly urged Haitians to recall the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives in a devastating earthquake three years ago, marking the disaster's anniversary Saturday with a simple ceremony. Martelly also thanked other countries and international organizations for their help after the Jan. 12, 2010, disaster. "Haitian people, hand in hand, we remember what has gone," Martelly said as a gigantic Haitian flag flew at half-staff before him on the front lawn of the former National Palace, a pile of tangled steel reinforcement bars nearby.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. - A man who climbed a New Jersey roller coaster that fell into the ocean during Superstorm Sandy and who unfurled an American flag there will face a disorderly conduct charge. Christopher Angelo, 38, of Lavallette, used a canoe to reach the site Tuesday morning. After putting the flag in place, he left the coaster and hopped into a police boat. He was then handcuffed, walked through the surf and escorted to a police car on the beach in Seaside Heights. Angelo says he acted to raise awareness for Shore recovery.

An Ocean County man on Tuesday apparently climbed the Seaside Heights roller coaster that was swept into the ocean by Hurricane Sandy and planted an American flag at its peak. Authorities said they received a report about 9 a.m. of someone on the Jet Star, which has been partially submerged since Sandy swept it off the Funtown amusement pier in late October. The man surrendered to New Jersey state police, who brought him to shore, said Lt. Stephen Jones, a State Police spokesman.