Posted on 10/18/2007 9:01:55 AM PDT by mojito
Flags flew the May day they buried Dale Peterson. They lined the streets of Burns, where hundreds watched, hands on hearts, as his coffin passed. One flag, in particular, made it to Dale's dad.
Greg Peterson, former sheriff of Harney County, went home to Redmond and hung the flag beside his front door. And there it flew, day and night, for the toddler he carried on his back into the Blue Mountains, for the boy he taught to fish the Malheur River, for the only son he sent to Iraq.
Sunday morning, as Greg Peterson left for church, he found the flag. Someone had torn it down, drenched it in lighter fluid and burned it. Ashes and the charred wooden flagpole lay scattered. "This was personal," he thought.
He walked back inside and called police.
Flags at nine other Redmond homes had also been torched overnight. A video camera at one home captured images of the culprits. On Tuesday, police arrested four teenagers, including three 17-year-old students at Redmond High School where Dale Peterson graduated in 2005.
That night, Greg Peterson sat at a friend's desk in Coos Bay where he traveled this week to train police officers. And in an open letter he began to type:
"I want you to know what that flag meant to me . . ."
"The flag you burned had flown over the United States Capitol. It was one of my son's goals to be a United States Marine. He put a lot of effort into it and graduated top of his class as a combat engineer. He also shot as an expert and his PT (physical training) score was 290. I am very proud of my son but words cannot express the sorrow I feel from his death. Dale, like most men and women in our armed services, had the courage to put his life on the line for our country.
"I ask myself, what courage do you have, and your reason for burning our country's flag?"
As he wrote, his friend, Dennis Canaday, watched, angry. He'd long admired Peterson, who lost his 2000 re-election bid by fewer than 40 votes in part because he refused to campaign. Peterson is now a police training officer for the state.
"What happened to that inner voice that says, 'This guy is grieving, and we should let him be,' " Canaday wondered about the teenagers.
Lance Cpl. Peterson was not an angel, his dad says. But he knew he needed a diploma to get into the Marines. The only boy among three sisters, he worked hard and played hard, trailing behind the father who taught him to fish, hunt and drive a Ford pickup in the open spaces they called "the Last Frontier."
He was 20 and had been in Iraq less than a month when on April 23 his team stopped to investigate a roadside bomb in Anbar province. But another bomb exploded beneath their vehicle, killing Peterson and another Marine.
A day before, the young Peterson e-mailed his dad. The two were at that delicate stage where a man who leaves home and marries -- in this case to fellow Marine Regina Peterson -- begins seeing a parent as a friend.
"I think about him every day," his dad said Wednesday. "I think people pay lip service to our vets and the people who served this country in the military, and it's very frustrating to me."
The teenagers are accused of arson, abuse of venerated objects, reckless burning, reckless endangering, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, said Redmond Police Capt. Brian McNaughton, but were "highly upset when they found out who the flag belonged to."
"I don't think they really knew what they were doing; they just did a stupid kid thing, not as any protest or against the United States or authority," McNaughton said. "They just went out and did one and thought it was funny and decided to go find some more and keep doing it."
Redmond High Principal Jon Bullock said all were saddened by the negative attention the incident would bring but "more importantly, the family of Dale Peterson is having to deal with not just the loss of a flag, but all the emotions that go with honoring their son." Bullock said he expects that people will come together and heal.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who had given Peterson the original flag, has arranged for a replacement.
But flag, or no, Greg Peterson will get up today and think of his son, who as a student at Redmond High wrote: "When I was growing up . . . I didn't like to be led around and told what to do by my peers. If they were going to do something illegal or damaging to a person's feelings or property, I had the willpower to stand up and leave."
I just adore Maxine...she should be our nations spokesperson!!! LOL
I like your creative sentencing ideas.
They are beneath contempt.
Lady Jag, would you be so kind as to give me the link to your wonderful saying?
Teenagers running around in the dark burning flags as a protest? Most rational people are going to ASSUME it was a teenage prank, so exactly what use is a protest like that unless you tell the world you’re protesting?
The police captain has a community to live with and enough bad publicity for the immediate future. He has to be PC enough to avoid 'making the situation worse'....none of us has that particular problem and darn few of us think the kids were 'just having fun doing something stupid' or whtever alibi the locals dream up.
See post immeditely following yours for example.
Just curious."
The word "Bullcrap" was, in my opinion, appropriate.
I have a question though. Where were the parents of these kids at day one? Many of us manage to keep our kids in line and out of trouble in spite of attempted government and government school interference. And, along the way, we manage to imbue them with the knowledge that the rights and property of others are not to be violated and that their feelings always deserve consideration.
“Gracesdad, I believe you are wrong, at best. Are you saying that burning NINE American flags is just a mistake?”
Well, yeah, it was a mistake in that they shouldn’t have done it, but, no, I don’t think they unwittingly just sort of mistakenly accidentally set them on fire.
“This is the result of the Stalinist teacher’s union.”
Whatever you say.
BTTT
I didnt say make them Marines, I said make them go to boot camp in lieu of jail time. I agree, I wouldn’t want them beside me in my beloved Corps.
Sounds like you would be happier at DU.
Indeed!
|
Subject: THE NEXT PRESIDENT Very eloquently put...........don't you think?
|
Targeting the American flag is no act of “teenage prank”.
You are a troll.
I agree. Kids are going to mimic what they see and hear.
I can think of much better punishment. Like being volunteers at the VA Hospital 2 days a week for a year. Maybe if they had to work with and for our veterans who have made our country what it is then they'd have a little more respect.
So what would you do if these were YOUR kids?
Thanks for the ping. I think. GRRRRR!
punks.
...may the carma come around to each of them in footpoundspersquareinch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.