Limited use sought for POW flag
Symbol too negative for year-round flying, Brookfield alderman says
By LISA SINK
lsink@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Nov. 29, 2005
Brookfield - The POW-MIA flag should be flown on limited days - not year-round as a city committee recommended - because the black-and-white flag is a negative symbol of the Vietnam War and the atrocities of war that fuels anti-military sentiment, an alderman says.
But another alderman says a 365-day-a year flying of the flag is a fitting memorial to prisoners of war or soldiers still missing, as well as their families.
The city's Legislative & Licensing Committee may vote for the second time on the issue at a meeting Dec. 7.
Ald. Steve Ponto said he and the other four members of the Legislative & Licensing Committee erroneously rushed to endorse a lone citizen's request that the city fly the POW-MIA flag.
The resident - Carter Doering - may have been satisfied to have the city fly the flag six times a year, as the federal government does at the White House and other federal offices, Ponto said. Doering could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
The committee had voted unanimously - Ponto included - to fly the flag 365 days a year.
"I think honestly the committee kind of got carried away," Ponto said in an interview Tuesday.
Ponto said he has since given the issue more thought and believes the flag should fly only six days.
"I'm concerned about the fact that it's another tie into Vietnam, which I think has, in a lot of ways, a crippling impact on society and our willingness to exercise our obligations as a sole superpower in the world," Ponto said.
Ponto asked the Common Council last month to send the flag issue back to committee for greater review. The council voted 9-5 to send it back. But three of the five members of the Legislative & Licensing Committee voted against sending it back, setting up a possible repeat of the recommendation for year-round flying.
Ald. Cindy Kilkenny said Tuesday that she still believes the daily display is appropriate. "It's more about remembering the families who deal with a loss, and that's what a memorial is," she said.
The flag would fly at Civic Plaza, outside City Hall, along with the U.S., state and city flags, near a city memorial that lists deceased soldiers, police officers and other officials from Brookfield.
"There's no problem with seeing that once a day as you drive by City Hall," Kilkenny said. "Honestly, if you get used to something, you might not even be aware of it."
She said that may be an argument to fly it only on limited days, to make a greater impact. But Kilkenny said she'd prefer to see it flown daily.
"When I drive by the post office, it's there," she said. "When you go by Harley-Davidson, it's there."
Waukesha County flies the POW-MIA flag year-round outside its administration building, said Charlie Shaw, county parks supervisor.
John Margowski, director of the county's Veteran Services Department, said about five to eight years ago he asked then-County Executive Dan Finley to fly the flag. Finley and the County Board had no problem with it, he said.
"Why should we forget them (on the other days)?" he asked. "There have been wars, unfortunately, for many, many years and there were people who never returned, and God forbid that we should not remember them."
Margowski said the stark black-and-white flag should "not be depressing. It should be a light of hope for those individuals that we're not going to forget you."
Waukesha does not fly the POW-MIA flag and has never been asked to do so, said Paul Feller, city public works director.
Ponto stressed that he wants to support prisoners of war and those missing in action, and believes the POW-MIA flag should be flown on the same six days the federal government flies it: Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, National POW-MIA Recognition Day and Veterans Day.
He noted that when he recently visited Washington, D.C., he and his family placed a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Ponto said his father was a World War II veteran. And Ponto helped arrange the Brookfield Rotary Club's donation of three flagpoles to the city at Civic Plaza.
But he said the symbolism was too negative and would feed into anti-war and anti-military sentiment he said was hampering the country's mission in Iraq.
"That flag is tied in most people's minds to the Vietnam War," he said. "Frankly, we're now looking at the Vietnam War being over 30 years, with us having normalized relations with Vietnam. I really believe that symbolism is very important."


From the Nov. 30, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Steven V. Ponto" , "Cindy Kilkenny" , "Daniel Sutton" , "Mike Franz" , "Gary D. Mahkorn"