Las Cruces veteran upends flag to protest Obama
politics, elections, right wing, conservative, free speech
Oh, now that a Democrat is president again we have to be careful about how we treat the flag
November 11, 2008, by Shari Vialpando and Diana M. Alba
If you happened to drive by Las Crucen Lou Schrader's house Wednesday, you probably saw his American flag flying upside-down on a pole in the front yard.
Schrader, 59, flew the flag upside-down for a day in protest of the election of Barack Obama as president. He's calling the move a political statement against Obama's platform.
Neighbor Dimitris Kollaros, 32, seemed to be taking Schrader's action with a grain of salt.
"We were laughing about it all day long," said Kollaros, interviewed Wednesday evening. "Now that there's an African-American president, he's protesting the U.S., and I think it's funny because, if you love your country, you love it no matter what."
Kollaros said he backs freedom of speech, but flying the flag upside-down shouldn't be done lightly because it could send the wrong message.
"We've got to be careful about how we do that, because we don't want to offend people," he said.