LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

USA flag is misused

Originally published on Oct. 15, 1970

Posted

EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter to the editor was originally published on Oct. 15, 1970, and was reprinted as part of the 70th anniversary of The Riverdale Press.

Editor, The Press:

During this current senatorial campaign, Riverdale has witnessed the flowering of many campaign stickers for Conservative Party candidate James Buckley, with the American flag used right next to his name.

As an American, I deeply resent this use of my flag by a political candidate to represent his particular point of view. I do not agree with Mr. Buckley’s viewpoint, but it is just as much my flag as it is his.

Let us not forget that the American flag, from its inception, stands for the universal ideas of freedom and justice, and is definitively not the private property of any one candidate.

Additionally, one of the main planks of the Buckley platform has to do with the candidate’s emphasis on the law and order issue. He has preached long and hard about the need to respect the law. And yet, city statutes, as well as both state and federal laws, are very specific in their prohibition of the use of the flag in political advertising, as Buckley has done.

How then can we expect ordinary citizens to respect the law when political candidates who preach respect for the law openly flout it when it suits their selfish political purposes?

STEPHEN J. BOGACZ

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Stephen J. Bogacz,

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