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FLAG LOGO STIRS READER RESPONSE

InternationalJoint Commission
Isnt' this upside down? No, according to the International Joint Commission

Last week, the Niagara Falls Reporter published the logo of the International Joint Commission (IJC), that depicts the American Flag below the Canadian flag and we asked people to let us know how they felt about it.

Of those responding, about 2/3 said it was wrong, while 1/3 said it did not bother them in the least.

One reader, Lenora Bellavia sent a graphic showing how the IJC could redesign the two flags side by side. This would be in keeping with international flag usage which forbids the display of one nation’s flag above another in times of peace.

Assemblyman John Ceretto (R-Lewiston) wrote, “I read the Reporter story on the Flag display and agree with the Reporter that the two flags should be side by side.”

Local 91 Business Manager, Richard Palladino, 72, a former Navy submarine diver, was explicit.

“Where the hell do they get off showing the Canadian flag above the American?” he asked. “Our military has protected Canada so they don’t have to spend money protecting themselves, which I doubt very much they could do anyway, and you can quote me! Making our flag lower shows priority. I don’t like it.”

Niagara Falls resident Michael Higgins expressed anger, “This (logo) makes me radical. The bottom line is they MUST RIGHT THIS WRONG!”

Others said we were making a lot of noise over not much at all.

“It’s only a logo,” one said.

“While I think you wrote an interesting story, frankly this logo falls within the purview of the IJC. I doubt it was intended as disrespectful,” said Rob Elwood of North Tonawanda.

Barrett Smith, 82, a Canadian sailor living in Ontario, said, “I do think you were overly sensitive. It would not bother me if the Canadian Flag was below the American.”

Niagara Falls Council Member Robert Anderson, who spent 22 years in the US military, said, “You know why Canada thrived? Because they never had a military. We are protecting them. And that means they did not have to spend billions of dollars every year. So if you want to pat yourself on the back, fine. But you have not contributed. I put my life on the line.”

Talking about Americans who suggested the Reporter is making too much of the IJC logo, he said, “You did the right thing. I tried to ignore it. I am considered a politician, but I am also an American and I look at it and I am saying, ‘It is amazing how this country has totally changed. It’s so sad. So sad… . So sad… So sad. ”

While this may be the first case of controversy between Canadian and American flag protocol, incidents of the Mexican flag flying above the US flag have been going on for years. In 2006, approximately 1,000 Hispanic students marched through the town of Pico Rivera to Montebello High School, where they flew the Mexican above an upside down US flag.

In Maywood, Calif., in August 2006, Hispanic demonstrators raised a Mexican flag over a U.S. flag at a US  post office, as part of a counterdemonstration against Save Our State, an anti-immigration group that claims California is becoming a "third-world cesspool."

In 2007, Jim Brossert, a Veteran from Reno, Nevada tore down a Mexican flag flown above a U.S. flag at a local tavern, using his American army knife.

Today in the southern US, the Mexican Flag is sometimes flown above the US flag.

The IJC has six members: Three appointed by the President of the United States and three by the Governor in Council of Canada, on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Commissioners are charged with settling issues arising out of Canadian - American joint use of the Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers and the five Great Lakes. Frank Bevacqua, a spokesman for the IJC, defended the flag logo. He told the Reporter that an office of the US Army created it.

Tell us your opinion.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com July 03 , 2012