Flags, Signs, and City Ordinances:
Who’s the Boss?
As I write I just got back from a roundtable discussion about the new Ashton City Sign Ordinance. There has been quite a stir in my close-knit community about this new city legislation. The business owners feel like they are being discriminated against, because according to the new policy, every time they “construct, improve, alter, install, repair or relocate” a sign, they have to apply for a sign permit, and pay the entailing fee. The city, and more specifically the Planning and Zoning Committee, want to protect Ashton in the future, especially in the area of growth. They want to be able to regulate growth so they can control it. I’m sure in hindsight, the Driggs-Victor area wishes they had such a comprehensive plan. Needless to say, both sides are striving to maximize community welfare.
If I’m reading, this is where I start to say, “Okay, Luke, get to the point.” Insert point here: Appendix A, Section 5, Point 1, Paragraph 2; “No more than three flags per tax lot under 6 acres in size shall be displayed…”
When I heard this I was speechless.
The ordinance really says that if you live inside the city limits, and own less than six acres, you may only display three flags. My father was in the Army, my grandfather was in the Pacific in World War II, my uncle is a retired officer in the Navy, my cousin daily puts his life in danger in the secret service, and my great-uncle has lung cancer from the Agent Orange he inhaled during his time in Vietnam. My best friends’ brother, Jim Holtom, was also killed in Iraq about this time last year. My family and friends served in order to protect the freedoms that we as Americans all too often take for granted. Moreover, it seems that Ashton, the town I love, is being set on the path to neglect as well.
When the fifty-five Framers of our fantastic constitution met in that cramped, stifling hot courthouse in Philadelphia in the early summer of 1787, it was perhaps the greatest gathering of brilliant men in history. They believed in their liberty, freedoms, and government, and were willing to take it all to the death. They didn’t trust any form of government. In fact, Thomas Paine, author of the pamphlet “Common Sense”, and one of the most brilliant and inspiring men in American history, wrote, “Government is but a necessary of two evils.” They wanted us to be able to protest against any wrongs the government might impress, so they gave us the guaranteed freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition in the First Amendment. They wanted us to be armed against any tyrannical government like they had just overthrown by arms, so they guaranteed the peoples right to bear arms in the Second Amendment. They did not trust government, so they created one that allowed for checks and balances of power and how it was used.
My right to fly a flag is guaranteed under the First Amendment freedom of speech. If you recall back to one of my previous articles, we even have the right to burn it out of protest. So how can the Ashton set the limit at three flags to be flown as the maximum? Why not thirteen for the original colonies? Why not fifty for the current amount of states? How about 1776, for the year we declared our independence?
Obviously, if you cannot identify the logic behind an action, there isn’t much there. Drawing a line here is a slippery slope. What’s to keep them from saying what kind of flag I can fly next? The Constitution? They already overstepped that when deciding how many I could fly.
There’s also a thing in the Constitution called “The Supremacy Clause”. It states that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and none other rules over it. Not a president, not a state court, not even a city ordinance. To the city of Ashton, I have this to say; I hope you strike Appendix A, Section 5, Point 1, Paragraph 2 because it’s unconstitutional. The sweat, tears, and blood of the Framers, my family, and my friends have defended the right to fly as many of whatever flag I so choose. So, friend, if you see five, six, maybe even thirteen flags in my yard, honk your horn. I’ll know you love our constitution, too.
