Slashed Marshfield flag is repaired

MARSHFIELD -- Roy Kirby's house-sized American flag has been repaired and rehung from the roof of his house in Marshfield. The question remains: wWho would vandalize the huge flag that has become a Furnace Street landmakr llFourth of July lllandmarkon July 4th?. It's clear from interviewing local residents that they would rather blame teenage ruffians than think that someone was making a political statement by knifing two tears in the 20ll-llbyll-ll30-foot flag. But Kirby can't pass the incident off as a childish prank.
"Kids did not do this," he said. "There's a flag at the skate park almost as big as mine and kids never touched it. They take pride in it." Kirby's house, on the heavily traveled road to Humarock Beach, is well known for it's its elaborate Christmas displays and for the gigantic American flag he has been draping over the roof since the 1980s on Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day and more recently on Sept. 11. Kirby discovered two slashes in the flag Thursday night and reported the vandalism to Marshfield police Friday. He patched the holes with duct tape at first, then took it to a local sailmaker for repairs yesterday. He reinstated the patched flag, battle scars and all, yesterday afternoon -- in plenty of time for July 4th traffic.
"People honk their horns when they drive by the house," he said. Police would not say if any suspects have been identified. Kirby is hesitant to speculate about who might have cut the flag, but he's sure who didn't do it. Not kids, he said, and not foreign immigrants.
"They'd be the first ones to teach their kids not to disgrace the flag," he said, remembering a Colombian co-worker whom he said was as patriotic as he considers himself. "They feel privileged to be in this country."
Kirby doesn't want to think that the vandalism was personal. He was a driving force behind the construction of the town's skate park, a role that won him the Marshfield Mariner's 2003 Citizen of the Year award. Now he's spearheading efforts to turn the North River Hatch Mill into a museum. He said the town put up $120,000 to sponsor the project, and the nonprofit museum corporation recently got a $35,000 state grant to complete the work.
Kirby admits that his do-gooding isn't always perceived as such by others.
"I bump heads," he said. "I step on toes."
Some residents argue the vandalism was too amateur to be caused by an adult hand. "If it was an adult, they would have cut it in half, done something you couldn't fix," said Doug Brown, member and former commander of the Marshfield Veterans of Foreign Wars.
"Even if an adult felt that way, they wouldn't do that," said 17-year old Kristina Licare, 17, a Scituate lifeguard. Regardless of who the culprit might be, residents are distressed worried that the incident signals a declining respect for the community. "People are selfish these days. We don't think of our neighbors as our friends. Neighbors just create noise," said Marshfield shipbuilder Roger Crawford. "Maybe we've lost our community values."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ghsvid
• ghsnevid
• patriot
• ledger
• quincy
• police
• shooting
• james
• hart

[patriotledger]

We welcome your comments on our videos. Posts will be removed if they are in bad taste or contain obscenities, but they will not be edited. Thanks for your interest in our site.

[jimmybloodyjimmy]

troops. troops. troup can mean to clowns. you people are clowns.

[MASTERMASON8783362]

This mended 20' x 30'American Flag will be displayed on the roof again for the Memorial Day weekend, then sent over to the Troups in Iraq, to be flown on the 4th of July. "God Bless Our Troups"

[NyAPPYisM]

why did they cut the flag?

[LaReinaDelBarrio]

I am sorry that some idiot felt he was making a statement by slashing that wonderful American flag. God bless America!

[pegasusphm1]

Concur,

[kopec1]

20ft by 30ft doesnt sound right. What is it really?

[07blkCobalt]

im canadian and i dont even see why a ameracan would want to do that do there own flag:S

[LifeisHard27]

Wow, thanks a lot for the video. why would someone do such a mean thing.

[hiddentalent123]

Don't know why anyone would want to do a stupid thing like that. Keep the flag up.