Jon D Thornton
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

Thank you Meg. When I lived in Florida, one of my neighbors flew old glory from their porch column. When I worked nights I would come home before dawn to find the flag still hanging in the dark, not even the porch light on. I walked across the street, took our flag down, furled it (rolled it onto it’s pole), and placed it under their porch roof next to their front door. “Perhaps they forgot” I told myself, but I knew better.

The next morning, I came home from another night shift before dawn. Once again our flag was flown at night and once again I took it down.

This continued off and on for a couple weeks, whenever I worked a night shift. At no point did it ever occur to my neighbor to research the cause of this odd ritual. Imagine waking up to discover someone had been on your front porch, taken down your flag, rolled it up and leaned it next to your front door? Obviously, I was making a statement. Obviously it wasn’t received.

My job required us to work day shifts to maintain proficiency. After two weeks of nights I rotated back to days. On my way to work, I checked my neighbor’s house; by dawn’s early light the flag was still there. You had to admire their tenacity.

That evening I came home, distracted by the events of the day and eager to be with my wife and children. They didn’t know about my personal feud with our neighbor, no doubt my wife wouldn’t approve, so they didn’t understand why I turned right around and walked across the street.

You see I was on Active Duty at the time and therefore was still in uniform. I knocked on the door and introduced myself. “Hi, I’m your neighbor from across the street, and I’m a Captain in the National Guard.”

“Oh yes, nice to meet you” came the reply, “and thank you for your service.”

That’s when I knew I had her. I said I appreciated seeing the flag but explained the custom of taking the flag down at night. I also told her that there was a simple workaround if she wanted to continue to fly a flag daily. “You’re porch light would adequately illuminate the flag through the night” I pointed out. “And when your flag becomes worn or faded, just leave it with me, I’ll ensure it is properly retired.”

From that day forward the flag was ever present upon my neighbor’s porch column, and every evening the porch light came on.

Jon D Thornton

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BAPS/Economics/MSIR