So don't deny them, as long as they're all American flags. The slippery slope doesn't go very far here. Once everyone in the neighborhood is flying an American flag things can't exactly slide any "lower". It doesn't seem unreasonable that "American flags only" should be a hard and fast rule considering that the neighborhood's location in the United States of America is a hard and fast geographical fact.
Jesus, the guy has a Medal of Honor. The HOA people can eat shit.
You deserve to burn with all people who support HOA's.
I live around the area where this is happening.
The guy applied for it twice before he even moved in and was rejected both times. He still moved into the town home knowing they didn't allow it, and he still put one up.
Not knowing much about him, I thought, what a dick, they said no and he still put up.
Then I read about the guy and there's no way I could deny him that flag pole. I know a lot of people are trying to argue, if you allow him the exception then others will start demanding exceptions be made too. You know what though? No one else has as strong a case as him.
I don't care how ugly they think that pole might be for the little bit you have to see it from dusk to dawn when he doesn't have the flag on it, that man deserves to have it. I'm not usually for giving people special treatment because they did "something", but he didn't just do "something" he IS a hero.
Law doesn't work like that.
Big Picture? So Freedom of Speech isn't big picture? So you would silence someone because you may not want to see it or hear it? Interesting.
"I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Actually it was my usual commentary on symbol worship. I think the man is brilliant and brave and should be respected for what he achieved. But I don't think symbol worship is the appropriate response.
I actually agree with you, but I also think it's a silly thing to fight about.
Nazi flags flying don't seem to be a problem in non-hoa neighborhoods. I've never seen one in person and I've seen a hell of a lot of American flags.
:jawdrops: Holy shit. He should change his name to Col. Badass.
I believe he did know, asked and was rejected but still decided to buy/move there.
Well, hopefully some reasonable residents will take it upon themselves to get elected to the HOA for the explicit purpose of changing that rule, or defining exceptions to it. That's what I would do.
Law gives the HOA authority. The HOA can make changes to their bylaws.
MOH awardees should be able to do whatever the fuck they want. Let alone 90 year old 3 war veterans.
1. That's not what I meant. If an HOA passed a rule that said "Only the flag of the U.S. may be displayed," how long do you think it would be before someone wanted to display a Mexican flag? Or Swedish flag? Or swastika? The first two possibilites most people would have no problem with, but I really doubt that most posters in this thread would tolerate the third. On the contrary, you'd probably see people posting that they would rip it down or deface the owner's property.
2. I can only speak for my HOA, but changing the bylaws requires a 51% affirmative vote by every homeowner. The Board cannot make changes on its own. In eight years, it's only been done once, and took months because most homeowners just didn't bother responding. The only change was to allow more varied paint colors and stain for decks and fences. For this minor point, which reduced restrictions, after months of sending out notices, a board member finally went house to house ringing doorbells until he got 51% of the neighborhood to sign off on it.
HOA's have a bad rep on this board, but how many of the posters here actually are governed by one, and of those, how many have even attended an HOA meeting, much less tried to get their HOA to ease restrictions?
I became an HOA board member solely because: (1) no one else really wanted to, and (2) I wanted the power to vote against silly restrictions like the MOH winner's flagpole.
The HOA board is required to enforce it's own rules. Selective enforcement would open the door to lawsuits, not to mention being completely unfair.
That seems to be the narrative. I don't find it to be the case very often. It's just that there aren't really two sides to the issue of "Dumbass kid falls off treadmill LOL".
In any event, the argument among most people that I've seen in this thread is that the guy should be able to break the rules because he won the MoH. I find this reasoning pretty suspect. Either he is within the rules, or he's breaking the rules. His history as a soldier, while a compelling journalistic angle, is completely irrelevent as far as I can see with regard to his contract rights versus the housing authority.
But feel free to scream and rant about how the rules shouldn't apply to him. That tactic should prove quite useful in court.
his medal of honor description reads like a sweet videogame level. what a badass.
In any event, the argument among most people that I've seen in this thread is that the guy should be able to break the rules because he won the MoH. I find this reasoning pretty suspect. Either he is within the rules, or he's breaking the rules. His history as a soldier, while a compelling journalistic angle, is completely irrelevent as far as I can see with regard to his contract rights versus the housing authority.
This is the best post in this thread so far. As much as I think he should be allowed to erect his flagpole and fly the American flag with pride, at the same time he broke the rules. The bylaws of his association say differently. So he bucks the trend because he has a MoH. Personally, I believe he should be able to do whatever the hell he wants to do on his land, but the association has rules and he broke them.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled insult laden thread.
I think the fuss is less about "MOH means you should be able to break the rules" than it is about "HOA is a bunch of unfeeling bastards who don't know when to make an exception to the rules".