Shameful, shameful...shameful.

This flag has been in this state for months. (Or consistently approaching it.) Last year, in the spring time, I had a brief conversation with the owner about how the flag over the previous winter should never have been allowed to stay up. His smiled response was "In the winter, with the snow and the ice, it's not safe to try to change the flag..." Okaaaaay.

I went in last week, looking for him. He wasn't there, so I spoke to a gal behind the counter.

"Hi. Your flag really needs to be taken down and replaced. Can you tell your boss, please?"

"Flag...?"

"Yes. The flag out front."

"Out front...?"

"Uh-huh. The one on the flag pole?"

Blank stare. (Deer-caught-in-the-headlights.)

"Out front. By the street. Thirty feet tall. White. With a decrepit Maple Leaf flag flying from it."

"Show me?"

So we walked to the front of the store, through the doors and into the entranceway.

"There. That flag."

"Oh. I never new it was there..."

"Please tell your boss that it needs to be replaced? He can't keep that flag flying in that condition. It's unconscionable."

Staring. "OK. I will."

The flag is no longer red. It's more...orange. Pale, faded orange.

And it's shredded at the free-flying side...as well as having split down the horizontal axis since these shots were taken.

I went in three days ago and spoke (I'm assuming) with the co-owner, the man's wife. She was apologetic, explaining "We've been so busy, short-staffed..."

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

OK.

Here's the deal: showing respect for the flag...unless you're deliberately showing disrespect for the flag...is not an option. It's not something you do when it's convenient.

If you can't find time for your staff to take care of this during the business day, guess what? You need to have someone either come in early or stay late. Pay the ten bucks in wages to get this done. Otherwise...

...don't fly the flag.

If you cannot prioritize sufficiently to show respect for the flag of the country in which you've chosen to make your home, then don't fly a flag at all. A flag is symbolic of its country, its people, the values those people have built their lives around...everything.

There is no room for interpretation here. And it has nothing to do with 'being patriotic' or 'nationalistic'. It's about respect.