GraniteGrok

January 25, 2008

Claude Roessiger

Stoneham Lane

Wolfeboro, NH 03894

Dear Mr. Roessiger,

This is in response to your letter to the Board of Selectmen of November 2, 2007, in which you raise questions about the display of the American flag in Wolfeboro, and your letters of December 4, 2007 and January 21, 2008.

I did not respond to your earlier letters for a couple of reasons: (1) I had no direction from the Board of Selectmen to do so, and (2) I have never before seen or handled a complaint quite like yours, involving the alleged excessive display of the American flag in a community.

My understanding of your contention is to the effect that the display of the American flag (or what you consider the excessive display of the flag) on Town property constitutes "the expression of political opinion on public property", which you do not believe should be allowed. My reaction to your contentions is twofold. First, I do not believe the American flag represents any one political party or political view. If you watch the current series of primary elections of both major political parties, they are bothe bedecked in American flags virtually all the time. So I do not believe that the display of the American flag constitutes partisan political speech.

However, even if the display of the American flag does constitue political speech, political speech is specifically protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and may not be reasonabley restrained.

Finally, your threat to bring an action against the Town for not having previously responded to your letters, as contained in your letter of January 21, 2008, would seem to be totally out of proportion with the situation. The unnecessary expenditures of resources that would be involved, both on the part of the Town and yourself, in pursuing such a course of action would be unwise, to say the least. I trust you will concur.

David W. Owen

Town Manager

CC: Board of Selectmen

A day later Mr. Roessiger responded, disagreeing (no surprise) and, after noting he too prefered to avoid litigation, offered for both sides to consult "someone expert in constitutional law" and then meet.

"We bring these two together before us to understand and weigh their views. If the weight seems to favor your perspective, I shouldn't think it necessary to take matters further, on the other hand if the weight favors my perspective, those flags which may be self-evidently be considered unusual and not habitual-- in short, those we never had-- come down."

Three weeks later... enter the lawyers (well, lawyer). In subsequent letters from both Mr. Roessiger's counsel and himself, the legalese mounted, and he threw in yet another wrinkle: let him mount placards with a George Washington quote about foreign entanglements on each pole sporting a flag. Ultimately, the town rightfully denied this, too, and on May 29th, Mr. Roessiger filed suit.

Several days later, following a posting here on GraniteGrok, Skip emailed the story to our military family friends-- including the Blue and Gold Star Mothers, or as we like to fondly call them, the "Moms of Fury." Heh! That in turn started an Internet blog-swarm that fueled comments, phone calls, and emails flooding the company run by Mr. Roessiger who, it seems, got the message loud and clear! There was even talk of a visit to the town to stand guard over the flags in place, and a plan to mail Mr. Roessiger flags of all shapes and sizes (which I still hope people will do).

Today, thankfully, the story concludes with a happy ending: Wolfeboro will keep its flags, and won't have to waste taxpayers' dollars to do so!     

An "excessive and unusual" display? Not hardly.