Tube City Almanac

August 12, 2008

Leftovers, Again?

Category: Rants a.k.a. Commentary || By

(Editor's Note: I wanted to get a comedy-variety show to fill this spot for the summer ... something hosted, maybe, by Wayne and Schuster or Pat Paulsen, and featuring the Ding-a-Ling SIsters. But as it turns out, 1.) I don't have any money to hire talent, 2.) I'm not actually on TV, and 3.) the people I wanted for the show are dead. So instead, we're stuck with another rerun, this one from May 7, 2003.)

. . .

Isn't it funny how the bodies of government that have the most impact on our daily lives --- our town councils and school boards --- get the least scrutiny from voters? Funny, as in, "depressing"?

In any event, a story from this evening's Daily News illustrates again why the Mon Valley will never get its own chapter of Mensa. It seems that the borough council in Glassport "discovered the U.S. flag on display there was missing something --- a couple of stars":

Councilman James Foster recalled the moment exactly. A month or so ago, he and other councilors were looking around chambers thinking of ways to improve its look.

"We were talking about how old some of the things were and I pulled the flag out," Foster recalled. "I immediately said 'Hey, this is a few stars short.'"

Two to be exact. The even row pattern of the flag tipped Foster off.

Stars aren't the only thing that seem to be in short supply these days.

What we have in Glassport, then, is a group of elected officials that hasn't noticed the wrong American flag in its very own council chambers for 44 years, ever since Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the union.

A question for the good burghers of Glassport --- if your borough council doesn't notice when two entire states are missing from the giant flag to which they pledge allegiance at least once a month, do you think they'd notice if, say, thousands of dollars were missing from the budget?

That's the kind of question that residents should be asking on Election Day.

Let's give Glassport council the benefit of the doubt. Maybe past councils were just trying to be fiscally responsible. They didn't want to purchase a new flag until they determined whether Alaska and Hawaii were going to remain part of the union, which is still a subject of debate --- according to these websites --- among some residents of both states.

By the way, I understand that Glassport is buying a new American flag. They've already sent a telegram to President Eisenhower to see if they can get a photo of him to hang next to it.

Meanwhile, Dave Copeland had an item yesterday about UMass, which is considering dumping its Minuteman mascot for sensitivity reasons (apparently, some people don't like having a guy running around campus carrying a rifle). Mainly, the UMass braintrust seems to be concerned because souvenirs featuring the Minuteman don't sell well.

Dave: It could be worse. Like me, you could have graduated from a college whose mascot is a dog in a skirt.






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