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There's a story
behind every picture of a flag
| By Rich Eggleston More than 10,000 people demonstrating for a common-sense
immigration policy rallied at the Wisconsin Capitol April 10, and the American flag was
prominently displayed, along with flags from across the Americas.
"A day of many flags" was the Wisconsin State
Journal's headline on its front-page story.
"The U.S. flag should be front and center, Madison
march organizers said Saturday when they met at the Madison Diocese's Multicultural Center
on the city's south side," The Capital Times reported.
The Capital Times captured some of the flags here.
What was the demonstration about?
Susan Lampert Smith explained best in the Wisconsin
State Journal what the demonstration was all about.
"It's called the American Dream, and it was out in
full, flag-waving force at the Capitol on a sunny April day," she wrote in a column here. |
Demonstrators waved the flags of
Nicaragua and the United States,
among others
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A flag was mounted on the Hamilton Community
House, a historic building in Two Rivers that underwent a $2.5 million renovation. Could
the City of Two Rivers afford to maintain the building under the corrosive Taxpayers
Protection Amendment proposed in the 2005-2006 session of the Legislature? (photo submitted by the City of Two Rivers.) |
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Wisconsin troops in Iraq
— submitted by Mick, a Marine from Madison,
who returned from a tour of duty in Iraq in spring, 2005 |
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City of Sheboygan
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Closer to home, on July 1, 2005, the city of
Sheboygan became host to the tallest flagpole in the United States. Acuity, a property and
casualty insurer based in Sheboygan, built the flagpole in honor of the country's
servicemen and women, and Mayor Juan Perez helped raise a giant American flag at the
dedication ceremony. "You can barely get
into Sheboygan County without seeing it," said spokesman Buzz Blizzard of Acuity.
The steel pole is 338 feet high, 6 feet wide at the base,
weighs 65 tons (without the flag) and is sunk into a 550-ton block of concrete that is 40
feet deep, 8 feet wide and reinforced by steel rods.
The flag is 120 feet by 60 feet, or 7,200 square feet. Each
star is 3 feet high and each stripe is 4 1/2 feet wide. The flag weighs 300 pounds. Acuity
has six flags, which will be repaired and used on a rotation.
An earlier, slightly smaller flagpole blew over in a Jan. 1 windstorm, and engineers
discovered it had been improperly installed. The cost of the new flagpole was $450,000,
part of which was paid for by a settlement with companies associated with the fallen
flagpole. |
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East Wing
Wisconsin Capitol
September, 2001
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Miller Park
Milwaukee
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Wauwatosa, Wis.,
July 5, 2004
-- photo by Terry Estness |
Shared Revenue Rally
March 12, 2002
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By Rich Eggleston Until
the terrorist attacks on our country in 2001, we didn't have a flag on the Alliance of
Cities' web page. It's a grand old flag, sure, but it's just a symbol. Back then, we
didn't need to surround ourselves with symbols, even important ones.
All that changed on Sept. 11, 2001. What was attacked? Innocent people, of course, but
human life isn't what's important to terrorists. What the terrorists attack are symbols — symbols of our economic might, our military
might, but mostly symbols of our freedom.
In the days that followed September 11, 2001, the stars and stripes popped up
everywhere. One of those stars — the
30th — is Wisconsin's. People recognized that symbols are important.
Images of the flag also showed up on the Internet, but I believe that a real flag — especially one in context — is a more compelling symbol than a computer
image. I'm constantly on a quest for flags. Please help us fly one from your
Alliance city by emailing me your flag photo. We like blue skies better than cloudy skies.
Who doesn't? There's no prize, but, hey, you don't want to make money off of your
patriotism, do you? Send me your entry by clicking here.
Thanks. |
