Posted on 05/19/2002 6:20:13 AM PDT by serinde
Teen wants to bring reverence back to flag
By Alicia Gooden
The Daily News
Published May 19, 2002LA MARQUE — Paul Fillippa has had a profound appreciation for the American flag since he was a 9-year-old Cub Scout.
That was the first time he saw the proper retirement for the U.S. flag.
“It’s just stayed in my head, and now I’m trying to live it out,” he said.
Eight years later, and on the cusp of graduation from high school, Fillippa wants to give a final tribute to Old Glory.
The 17-year-old La Marque High School senior is now a Life Scout, and as a project to become an Eagle Scout — the Boy Scouts’ highest honor — he wants the rest of the community to know how to dispose of tattered and worn U.S. flags.
This heightened sense of patriotism was brought on by the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Before 9-11, it seems like only people affiliated with the armed forces were into flags,” he said. “Now everybody is more patriotic.”
But Fillippa doesn’t want the patriotism to wane and the flags to go on unkempt, weathered and torn. He wants the allegiance to the American flag to be followed all the way to its death.
“The flag should be respected,” he said.
Eagle Scout projects must be endeavors that will benefit the community. Only 4 percent of all boys that join the Boy Scouts earn the Eagle Scout rank, according to information provided by the Boy Scouts of America.
Fillippa was in his second period class when he heard the news of the terror attacks.
“It’s just weird to think that someone would want to terrorize America,” he said.
Fillippa, a member of Troop 244, has been doing research on the subject for weeks now, getting help from Vietnam veterans such as Robert Rodriguez, who is also an Eagle Scout and who is Fillippa’s sponsor.
“I am very proud of him for doing that,” Rodriguez said. “I think he’s going to open up a nice can of worms.”
Though flag burning is controversial, ironically, burning is the proper way to retire an old flag.
Fillippa said the flag is cut into four quarters, but the blue field is the last to be cut and must remain intact.
When it is time for the blue field to be burned, whoever is holding that section must hold it up, kiss it and then let in burn in the flames.
Fillippa believes that burning the flag outside of retirement is disrespectful.
“I think it’s wrong for them to burn our symbol of freedom,” he said.
Fillippa said he wants to engage more young people in patriotic activities. He said if there is a lesson for young people to learn from the Sept. 11 attacks, it is that they are not invincible and that American freedoms should not be taken for granted.
“It’s like our parents saw war; they’ve seen it,” he said. “Now it’s our time to see it.”
Fillippa’s ceremony will be June 8 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in La Marque.
“I can’t wait to say that I was a Boy Scout, but now I’m an Eagle Scout,” he said.
I don't think FlagBoy had a choice. It seems to be an obsession with him. He can't get dead flags out of his mind. I am not sure what useful skills he is learning out of this. How to play with matches??? How to cut out fabric??? parsy the confused.
If he were interviewed about a term paper for school, he may have talked about only the subject of the term paper. To assume he is obsessed simply because this project is all the paper interviewed him about is brutally unfair.
Seems a little overboard to me. Maybe he just go to seminary or something. parsy.
I saw a beautiful Arabian horse when I was nine and fell in love with them... I have appreciated them ever since, and now I own one. They have just sortof stayed in my head and I have tried to live it out.
I went for a ride in a small plane when I was about 12. I decided that I wanted to learn how to fly and I later did. It just sortof stayed in my head and I have tried to live it out.
Get it? You are leaping to conclusions from one sentence in the life on a boy. He was asked by a reporter why he chose this project and he said he was inspired by something that he remembers from when he was young, and is still relevent and important to him today.
Any one of us could have such a quote to describe the things that caused us to appreciate and honor and love the things we do. One sentence does not make the whole boy.
You have totally hijacked a thread that could have been about a nice kid that did a nice patriotic project to get his Eagle Scout rank. You have turned it into something twisted, when it isn't, parsy.
My point exactamundo!! :-)
I like reading about nice kids doing nice things. I quit listening or watching network news several years ago because (among other things) ALL they talk about is the negative things in the world.
The fact that there are kids out there accepting positive values, making an effort to improve the world, and doing good gives me hope that the world is not a complete disaster and that some good will come out of life.
On a related note, there was a recent thread about how some good kids in a high school were recognized for this fact - over 1/2 the school. The principal was surprised that so many were good, and he works with them every day!
This tells me that MORE news about nice kids doing nice things would be a good thing, for everyone.
HEY! My father was an Eagle Scout. It was on his way to becoming a B-17 Group Commander. I have a 10 year old son who is not in Scouts, trying not to overcommit his time. But I love it when he picks up the qualities of the Scouts.
You're sounding ridiculous today.
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