The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Tattered flags raise vets’ ire
Say city not responsive to poor condition of downtown hangings
DERBY >> Several veterans Tuesday said they are “heart-wrenched” over the disgraceful condition of some of the flags flying downtown, and said their pleas to city officials to replace them have fallen on deaf ears.
Most of the two-dozen flags hanging from the black lightposts that line Main Street are either tattered and torn, have broken sticks that have been pieced together with duct tape or are lying on the ground, according to Robert L. Federico, a Vietnam veteran, and a fellow Army veteran who wished to remain anonymous.
Federico, a Derby resident who served in the Air Force, said he was outraged when someone brought a flag into the senior center this week that was found on the ground.
“The flag was ripped to shreds,” Federico said. “I was told people also ran over it with their cars. I was agitated, I was irritated and this made me cry at the sight of seeing the flag that I and millions of others fought for to be disrespected like that.”
Federico said the sight of the tattered flag prompted him to call City Hall. He said he was told by Mayor Anita Dugatto’s secretary, Jennifer Desroches, to contact Public Works about the issue.
“My fellow sisters and brothers fought and died for that flag, so I felt I had to act on this,” Federico said.
But being told to contact Public Works, rather than have someone at City Hall do that, rubbed Federico the wrong way.
“Why should I be doing their job when that should come from the mayor’s office?” he said.
Nonetheless, Federico contacted a Public Works employee, who told him he would look into the matter.
Public Works Director Anthony DeFala says he checks those flags every other day, but noted, “Obviously, there are issues with trucks hitting them as they zip by.”
Finance Director Henry Domurad agreed the flags are in poor shape, and said better brackets and new flag stands need to be installed. He said the city is planning to remove the flags Wednesday.
Desroches said “the poles will be replaced soon and we will buy the brackets for the new poles.”
“They do not make brackets for the old poles, they are obsolete ... hence the tape. Some poles have the sidemount brackets and those are no good. For instance, around Twisted Vine (restaurant) the trucks get too close and rip off anything on there. The flags will be coming down for now and put back up when we replace the poles.”
Federico said he’s “not throwing stones,” nor does he want to make this a political issue, but believes the way the flags in town are being treated deserves immediate action.
“It made me mad, especially because when I came back home (from Vietnam) I was spat on, and my country didn’t welcome me back,” Federico said. “I will not take this now. The veterans are not going to stand by and wait around for the city to say, ‘maybe we’ll take care of it.’ This has nothing to do with ego, nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the men and women who died and are dying for that red, white and blue. It’s about me being able to tell my grandkids that the flag didn’t come free, and freedom is not free.”
Federico contacted Republican mayoral candidate Richard Dziekan, an Air Force veteran, who offered to buy new flags. Dziekan said he went to a few stores, looking for similar-size flags, which are smaller than the standard 3-foot-by-5-foot ones, but couldn’t find any. He said he’d contact Public Works with his offer. He said, if he was mayor, he’d ensure that before every Flag Day in June, the flags flying in town would be in pristine condition, knowing the importance of what they symbolize.
“If you can’t hang them properly, take them down,” Dziekan said.