Homeowners Association Allows Short Pump Vet To Keep Flag Pole
90-year-old World War II veteran Colonel Van T. Barfoot, whose flag pole has been the subject of much debate and national media attention will be allowed to keep flying the stars and stripes at his home in the Sussex Square neighborhood off Gayton Road in Short Pump.
Barfoot received a letter two weeks ago from the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond ordering that the flagpole, on which he proudly displays the American flag, be removed by 5:00 p.m. Friday, December 4. He had originally petitioned his neighborhood’s homeowners association for the permission to erect the flagpole in July, but the request was denied because the association claimed it breached its covenants.
The Sussex Square Homeowners Association, facing immense pressure from the public after extensive media coverage, has decided to allow Barfoot to keep his 21-foot free-standing flag pole in place.
Congressmen Eric Cantor and Howard McKeon introduced legislation that would allow all Medal of Honor recipients to have flag poles regardless of community regulations in response to Colonel Barfoot’s story. The issue was even discussed at length early this week at a White House press conference.
Colonel Barfoot’s case follows a similar case in 2001 in which Wyndham resident Richard Oulton, a Vietnam War vet, was required to remove his 20-foot flagpole after the homeowners association, the Wyndham Foundation, cited it as a “visual nuisance.” Oulton’s case made national headlines as well and resulted in the signing of the “Wyndham Flag Law,” prohibiting neighborhood associations from barring flags or flagpoles unless the regulation is disclosed at the time of the home’s sale. Because this was the case with Oulton’s home, he was required to remove the flag.
Downtown Short Pump reporter Lauren Rinker also contributed to this story.
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This is just one little power trip by an unconstitutional authority – America is under attack by this plague of “contract government”. These Mandatory Associations do not operate under the principals of Democracy or the Will of the People – the “laws” are literally dictated corporate edicts. The HOA lawyers wrote these rules, enforce these rules, and dish out punishment for the rule breakers…while hiding behind the brainwashed clones that are “the BOARD”.
This same scenario repeats itself a thousand times a day over trivial matters not unlike “the flagpole” – things such as Solar Panels, basic home improvements such as siding and insulation to make homes more energy efficient, and mundane planting of shrubbery without permission of the benevolent non-profit power junkies.
60 million+ Americans live under these bastions of tyranny and absolute despotism- and it’s long overdue that we put all of them to the simple test of fundamental democratic VOTE on their existence. Each and every “mandatory” homeowner’s association needs to be dissolved unless the overwhelming majority of the present day owners vote (secret ballot) to renew this outrageous authority that was founded by liberty sucking parasites (HOA lawyers).
We deserve the right to choose if we want to renew the developer’s utopian “rules”- we did not surrender our constitutional rights when we bought a home, and anyone who believes the propaganda “you agreed to a perpetual contract” is just a brainwashed clone…another victim of the largest organized crime ring in the history of the USA – Mandatory Associations Foreclosing in America (it’s the M.A.F.i.A, stupid),
There is only one country I know of that flew the flag as much as we do in this country.
That was Nazi Germany.
If you don’t want to comply with HOA rules DON’T BUY A HOUSE IN AN HOA SUBDIVISION.
I’m thankful the homeowners association did the right thing.
If there were more subdivisions WITHOUT HOA’s I’m sure more people would NOT have them.. The problem is its very hard to find a nice house without some sort of HOA.
The place I used to live was built in ’85 and had a $206/month dues.. they cut the community grass, which was about 20 ft of grass, thats about it. No pool, No anything else.. nothing. Just replaced the roof every 10-15 years, and painted. 65 units.. 206/month. Do the math, thats over $160,000 a year… and they were always ‘in the red’ and raising the dues. But, can the community do anything about it? Nope.. thats not democracy.. While I agree that people signed these HOA Agreements, I think you SHOULD have a choice to NOT sign it in order to live in a home… thats where the problem lies.
A correction to this story……the last sentence says “Oulton was required to remove the flag”. The fact is Oulton was required to remove his 50 foot flag pole, he can and could have flown a flag like many other Wyndham homeownners do, just not on a 50 foot flagpole. Thus he was not required to remove the flag, just the flagpole. The issue was the 50 foot flagpole, not the flag.