345. The Flag

A beach town in Massachusetts has asked residents not to fly American flags on the Fourth of July. The reason is the endangered birds.

This is a real advisory. A town on the Massachusetts coast, where beaches exist and birds also exist, issued this request ahead of the national holiday. The holiday is in four days. The birds were not consulted.

The birds in question are endangered. They nest on beaches. The Fourth of July is the most significant holiday in the United States, measured by fireworks and also by flags. The town looked at the situation and decided that flags, on the day designed for flags, pose a risk to the animals also on the beach.

I want to be clear about what has happened here. A local government has asked residents to refrain from flying the symbol of the country, on the holiday of the country, out of concern for birds that have no position on flags. The birds do not know what July 4th means. They do not know what a flag is. They know beaches. They know what birds know. That is more than enough to be a protected species but less than enough to have filed the complaint that prompted this advisory.

Someone filed the complaint on the birds' behalf. This is the part I keep returning to. Someone attended a meeting, or sent an email, or spoke to a local official, and made the case that the flags — the flags, in particular, not the fireworks, not the people, not the grills — are the problem. This person won.

The residents have been asked to consider the birds. The birds have not been asked to consider the residents. This seems fair, because the birds were here first, at least on this particular beach, and they did not choose to be listed as a species of conservation concern. They are just birds. They are doing what birds do.

The Fourth of July will proceed. Somewhere on the Massachusetts coast, it will proceed without certain flags, out of respect for a bird that will be unaware of the respect, because it is a bird.

There is no resolution at this time. The holiday is in four days. The birds are in the sand.