When is our American flag “Just a piece of cloth?”

I rarely attend city council meetings anymore. The timing of them is so utterly inconvenient and it is pretty clear that what most people say during public comment isn’t being heeded anyhow. I would rather engage with elected officials one-on-one, in person, where a monologue isn’t the default – from either side.

But I watch just about every single city council meeting. It usually takes me a few days to get through the hours of comments, presentations and city business, but I do get through them, start to finish, every two weeks.

I try hard to consider the positions of all the speakers, carefully listening to the point of view they arrived at and how. It really is a great venue to engage with your city government, albeit with the noted restrictions.

Last week, there was a lady who carried an American flag up to the podium. She identified herself as a 78-year-old veteran, who was proud to have stolen that flag in the days before the meeting. Or at least that is what a subsequent commenter would describe, but we will get to him later.

This female veteran was driving in our city and witnessed this flag, on the ground, being used as a mat by homeless individuals. She stopped her car, got out and approached those walking on the stars and stripes. When she asked if they were veterans, the unsurprising answer was a resounding no. She informed them she would be taking the flag, gathered it up, put it in her car and left.

The flag, she noted, was covered in footprints, ketchup and dirt, clearly having been used unceremoniously and disrespectfully. She didn’t condemn or demean those she encountered, simply intervened as her moral obligation demanded.

Later, during public comment, a gentleman noted that his interpretation of her recounting this story, was that she had stolen this property from those individuals on the street. His argument was essentially that she idolizes what the flag stands for but that should include their right to disrespect it. He surmised that she violated their rights by stealing what was simply “just a piece of cloth.”

I am not a veteran. I never served in the military. And that is one of the greatest regrets of my life, that I didn’t enlist and serve my country in the armed forces. But I have dedicated my professional life to serving the war fighter in a different capacity.

In my office, a special flag hangs to remind me, every single day, what we are fighting for. This flag depicts the stars and stripes, but the stripes are comprised of the names of every person who died on Sept. 11, 2001. That is what the American flag represents.

It also represents all of the men and women who have served this country, each and every one making sacrifices for it and for us. Every single veteran gives something. Some give all they have.

Yes, I idolize the American flag. It is a symbol of our humanity, our dignity, our integrity and our country’s sacrifices. It represents the blood of Americans, in generations past, that have died for our freedoms. And it represents the blood that future Americans will voluntarily give to ensure their nieces and nephews, their children and grandchildren, will continue to have the legal right to walk on the flag they died for, or to have the pride in their country and the moral humanity to intervene when that flag is being desecrated.

It is not about the physical cloth, it is about respect for this glorious country we live in, gratitude to those who have sacrificed to deliver it to our generation, and support for those that continue to fight to ensure our rights can be passed down to those that come after us, forever.  

I applaud the woman who stole the flag from the ground. To her, it is not just a piece of cloth. Nor is it to me. Nor should it be to any American citizen who enjoys the freedoms that those who have died under it have bestowed upon us all. 

Shawna Pfeiffer is a life-long Dona Ana County Resident, graduate of NMSU, small business owner, hobby farmer, dog-lover, outdoor enthusiast and mother to two young children. She can be reached at srpfeiffer1@gmail.com.