Flag-bearers reveal motives
Flags appeared on campus early one morning in mid-September. The persons responsible say that they acted more for fun than to make a serious statement.
The sudden appearance of U.S. flags flying on the front campus back in mid-September was done more to poke fun at and to agitate Mennonites than to make a serious statement about patriotism, or the lack of it, say the anonymous tricksters.
Between 2 and 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13, three EMU students set out to make a statement to the EMU community. "The original plan was to do the flagging on Sept. 11, but one member was missing, so we had to find a time as close as possible to Sept. 11," says Flag Bearer 1.
The group had been discussing the plan for awhile, and on Saturday, Sept. 10, the group went to Wal-Mart to buy flags. They bought out all of the flags which Wal-Mart was carrying at the time. There was no purpose to the number of flags which were displayed. The total number of flags came to 130, and the cost was approximately $65 total.
The group knew that they would have to go out late to avoid security guards as well as any wandering students. One member of the group then climbed up a tree and jumped onto the roof of the Campus Center and stuck a larger flag on top. This flag fell down early the next morning and was not seen by many students.
Then all of the members of the group made sure the coast was clear and flagged the front lawn. There was no pattern to how the flags were displayed; they just stuck the larger flags in the center, and put the rest of the little ones around them as fast as they could. The total process of flagging took about five minutes.
The next day, Ken Nafziger, vice president for Student Life, sent out an e-mail requesting a statement of purpose, saying that the EMU handbook requires that: "All students have the right to lawful and peaceful demonstrations provided they do not disrupt class work or other university business or create substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others." About two days later the group put up a sign along with the flags simply stating that they "just want a flag flown." The sign also incorporated words such as "freedom" and "Pledge of Allegiance." The flags and sign had been up for approximately four days when students and maintenance started to take the flags away. Some students even took the flags to their rooms.
While the sign stated the logical purpose of the group, group members said the main purpose was for fun. Flag Bearer 2 felt that "this campus is pretty uneventful, so we wanted to do something that would stir something up." Although the group did not want to turn this act into a political debate, Flag Bearer 1, does believe that a flag should be flown on campus, saying, "Just to show support for our country. Obviously, not everyone is going to support our government's decisions, but it is the country we live in. The Mennonites from Canada fly their flags all of the time, so why don't the Mennonites in the United States?"
The group was satisfied with how the flagging went, but says there are some things that they would do differently. Flag Bearer 3 wishes that the flag on the Campus Center had stayed up and wished they had more flags to put in more places. Similarly, Flag Bearer 2 wishes that they could flag the entire campus and hang a massive flag on the top of one of the main buildings. Flag Bearer 1 wishes that they had not told so many people of their plans. They wanted to remain as anonymous as possible.
"We wanted to remain anonymous for mostly fun. There was a little fear, too, but we mostly wanted to keep people guessing. We wanted a mysterious aura around the whole thing. Like the flags were sent by God. We are button pushers," says Flag Bearer 1. Flag Bearer 2 said, "I am a Mennonite, and I believe Mennonites seem to have issues against anyone who go against their beliefs. It was a joke and it is better off if not everyone knows who did it." Flag Bearer 3 summed it up by saying, "People can overreact." Each member of the group did not want to have tons of fingers pointing at them; they just wanted to do this as more of a joke.
However, the group felt the goal of this project was not completely reached. "We are satisfied in that we had fun doing this. Though, we felt the Weather Vane photo and column comments on our flagging got our goal all wrong," said Flag Bearer 1. The group wanted both sides of the issue to be talked about and they also did not want the political issue of the flagging to be the main issue. Flag Bearer 1 said, "We wanted the message to be sent to the school but not in a controversial way." Flag Bearer 2 said, "It was a joke, that is it. He [Kevin Ressler] read too much into it."
Many students though shared an opinion similar to Ressler's. Junior Mark Risser said, "I was not offended, but I just questioned their purpose. I did not appreciate it. I do not attach any sense of pride to the flag, I do not think, 'I am American. I am proud of our flag.' So when I saw it displayed, I saw it as unnecessary. The flag is a representation of a country and what it does. I do not always agree with what our country is doing, and that is why I do not always appreciate the mass displays of it, or intense pride in it."
Other students were impressed that somebody spoke out about their opinion. "I was not offended by it," said one student. "I guess I just thought it was people pointing out the views and wanting other people to see that this campus is not just another Mennonite campus. There is diversity on campus."
Some students have suggested that EMU could fly many flags from around the world, not just the United States flag. "Hesston has countries' flags in their cafeteria," said one anonymous student. "Eastern Mennonite High School has many countries' flags hanging on the ceiling of their chapel. EMU could do something similar to this," said another anonymous student.
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