Americans take their patriotism very seriously, particularly when it comes to military service, which makes a lot of sense.
Those who risk and sacrifice their lives to keep their country and its people safe are going to look at national pride in a different way than those who don’t. At its core, America is its military service.
The American flag means so much more to veterans than we could ever understand.
It is a physical representation of freedom; of unity; of what it means to fight for what you believe in. Veterans have lived realities in which which these things have to be defended, so they don’t take them for granted.
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One Army sergeant is being challenged for his display of the American flag.
Army Sgt. Chris Link lives in Killeen, Texas. He recently received a letter from the president of the Home Owner’s Association stating that he would face fines if he did not remove the American flag hanging on a pole in his front yard.
Community guidelines state that a flag may only be displayed on a pole four days per year.
Those days are Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and Flag Day.
“Please understand 90% of the homeowners are retired military and when the four days of the year that we can display our flags, we do,” the email read, “So, please remove the flag so there will be no violation sent out with a fine attached to it.”
Sgt. Link removed the flag from the pole and used brackets to hang it outside his home.
Link cited the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 , which “prohibits real estate management organizations from restricting homeowners from displaying the flag of the United States on their property.”
However, the HOA said that he was still breaking community rules.
“They said you can’t have a flagpole and so I took it off the flagpole and then the HOA president who lives right down the street still told me that I can’t fly my flag, period,” Link said.
He was ordered to remove the flag from his property entirely.
“I think it is absolutely disgusting and unpatriotic of you to try to bully the members of this community into not flying an AMERICAN flag.”
“That flag means more to me than a lot of people realize,” Link explained. “That’s the only reason I joined the Army; was to fight for my country because I love that flag and everything that flag stands for.”
Members of the community are now displaying their American flags in support of the sergeant.
Link’s neighbor Clifford Devaul expressed his outrage to KCEN-TV :
“I don’t think anybody who has a home in the United States of America should be told they can’t fly the colors, the flag for that same country they’re residing in.”
