Upside Down Flag Protests Ignite Controversy: 'This Country is in Distress,' Says Veteran
A week after President Obama won re-election, signals of the country's distress continue to pop up, sparking hotly contested debates and controversies in those communities.
The American flag has been a symbol of freedom and hope not only domestically, but around the globe for the past few centuries while being the manifestation of a citizen's pride.
But the days after the election, a new trend has begun to occur throughout the country, as concerned citizens and businesses fly the flag upside down, signaling distress.
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"That's a sign of distress; this country is in distress right now," Larry Guerrieri, a Vietnam veteran who was flying the flag upside down in front of his home in the town of Dorseyville outside of Pittsburgh told KDKA.
"This Benghazi incident, he left them four people there to die … that's the way I feel about it," he added.
Not all people feel that flying the flag upside down for this particular protest is appropriate, however. Some even say that using it as true signal of distress and for political reasons is an insult to those who fought for the flag.
"I think that's a stab at us. It doesn't make sense why anyone would want to do that. That's a distress signal, and maybe they didn't know that, but we know that," Lou Headman, a veteran, told WPIX.
Flag Plaza is where the National Flag Foundation is housed, and Clark Rogers, acting director of the National Flag Foundation, does contend that using the flag in this manner may upset veterans.
"No question about that, veterans are very tender about that flag," Clark told KDKA. "They fought for that flag; their buddies sacrificed for the flag."
Yet Guerrieri, has no plans of flying the flag true anytime soon insisting that "it will stay there for four years," as a signal of the duress that America is currently under.
Private residents are not the only ones to express their dissatisfaction with the current situation.
A McDonald's franchise located in Brooke County, West Virginia, recently made headlines after the flag out front of the fast food resultant was seen being flown upside down. However, the manager later clarified that the store's flagpole was broken.
