Here’s something that must be understood: When Victor Perez Balbuena, the president of the Dominican House of Hazleton, submitted a formal request to city government to fly the Dominican Republic flag at City hall on Saturday to commemorate the 181st anniversary of the D.R.’s independence from Haiti, it could be seen as little more than procedure.
The request was far from abnormal. Frankly, it’s a common ask of local governments. Happens all the time. Everywhere.
The response – Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat declining that request, however politely — is what was curious. It’s what needs to be addressed and discussed and parsed and learned from as communities move forward in a world where flags are viewed as symbolizing political divisions, not just the heritages of the different places from which most of us came.
“I don’t ever see a reason to take down the American flag to put up any other flag,” Cusat said when addressing his rebuke of flying the D.R. flag, adding he couldn’t recall an instance where any flag other than the American, Pennsylvania or POW/MIA flags ever flew at City Hall.
All around, that’s incorrect at best, disingenuous at worst.
For starters, Balbuena and the Dominican House weren’t asking for the American flag to be taken down. They simply wanted the D.R. flag raised.
Asking for anything different would be a violation of the United States Flag Code, which requires both that the American flag is flown daily “on or near the main administration building of every public institution” and that no other flag be placed above, or at the same level, as the Stars and Stripes.
But the bigger deal here is, other flags have flown underneath the American flag at Hazleton’s City Hall on plenty of occasions. It was practically a tradition, as it is in many cities throughout the area, to lift Ireland’s flag up the mast just underneath Old Glory in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the city’s citizens with Irish roots. Raising other flags from other nations or flags that represent communities in accordance with Flag Code policies is, in fact, a tradition that has been largely celebrated in America and brought goodwill toward members of those communities and their histories.
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In Hazleton, residents with roots in the Dominican Republic comprise no small cross-section of the city. According to the 2020 Census, more than half of the nearly 30,000 city residents were Hispanic or Latino. Amilcar Arroyo, president and editor at El Mensajero International, estimated 90 percent of that portion had Dominican roots. They deserve that the city not just recognize their past, but their current contributions to the city, with what is in actuality the common granting of a request to raise their flag beneath the American flag at City Hall.
There certainly is room for compromise on this issue; The D.R. flag is on display inside Hazleton’s City Hall, after all, and Cusat did say he’d take community members up on their invitation to join their independence day celebration if he could.
But officials in bigger cities and small towns throughout the area do need to separate political ideology from the reality that communities are different, that they are built by and from citizens of different backgrounds. Raising another nation’s flag is not an assault on the values of the American flag, a rebuke of our nation’s principles, or a sign that American culture is under attack.
To the contrary, it’s a reminder of America’s strength, of the freedom and opportunity it stands for to so many outside the nation’s borders. It’s a reminder, also, that Americans can understand and value that strength while showing compassion and awareness for other nations that aren’t as fortunate as ours.
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Publish date : 2025-02-27 04:51:00
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