Dear Editor,

What makes this small town of Tonasket so special that it could not get it’s act together to lower two of its prominently displayed flags to respect the 20 children and six adults that were murdered in a small town in Connecticut very much like ours? Where is our town’s honor for the request made by our Governor to lower our flags until Tuesday evening? The lowering of our flag has been a way to honor and respect citizens of our country for many years.

Leaders of this community were asked by myself and another to take care of this request and were assured that the flags would be lowered. I even offered to assist with the lowering of these flags. My help wasn’t needed, I was assured!

On to more flag etiquette information:

The flag at the north end of town is torn, tattered and dirty. It should be removed when in such condition. The light that is supposed to illuminate the flag at night is also burned out.

If you wish to fly the American Flag; Please do so with the respect given to it via the rules of “Flag Etiquette!” If you don’t know what those are, please check with someone that does. Using the Internet, it’s quite easy to look up these rules for yourself.

An interesting note of Flag Etiquette is that if someone flies another country’s flag above our flag on the same pole, it means they are at war with us!

We honor the ultimate sacrifice to those of our military services that have given their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy by draping the flag over their coffins and then present them to our Gold Star Mothers and family members.

Enough said; fly it correctly or don’t fly it. Please!

Michael Stewart and Karen Schimpf

Chesaw