A small group of self-proclaimed patriots festooned nine large American flags across the front entrance of Boulder (Colo.) Public Library November 2. Led by workers from local tech firm Free Wave Technologies, they were protesting a decision by Library Director Marcellee Gralapp not to hang a large American flag in the library’s glass entryway, as some library employees had requested. The public outcry grew, and November 5 Gralapp relented and a smaller donated flag was displayed on a pole in the lobby.
The director’s initial decision offended a number of people, some of whom called the Boulder Daily Camera, which reported November 3 that Gralapp had said displaying the flag might “compromise our objectivity. We have people of every faith and culture walking into this building, and we want everybody to feel welcome.”
“Tommyrot!” countered an editorial in the November 6 Denver Post. “The American flag is a secular, not a religious, symbol that represents the traditions of a country so zealous in its pursuit of individual freedoms that bedrock concepts, including freedom of speech as embodied in the First Amendment, are part of its Constitution.” Protest leader Jonathan Sawyer told the Camera that the library “is a government building and this is our country’s flag. For them to say this flag could be considered offensive, well, that’s just beyond the pale.”
Posted November 12, 2001.