Terri Collins has been flying the American flag outside her home in San Marcos, California, for 35 years. Last week, the Ambiance Owners' Association told her to take it down.
Five days before July 4th. The year America turns 250.
The HOA sent letters to multiple homeowners in the San Diego County community demanding the removal of flag displays from common areas. The letter warned that allowing flags would open the door to other expressions, writing that "once the members allow use of a common property by an owner to express what is essentially a political or affiliative view in a flag, other owners will want to do the same and the common area will degrade."
The American flag. A "political or affiliative view." In a neighborhood near the former Miramar Navy Air Station.
Collins isn't budging. "They can fine me, $100, $200, $1,000, I'm not paying it," she told reporters.
Neither are Chris and Amy Cooke, who have flown the flag outside their home for more than 20 years. Amy, a 62-year-old visitation supervisor for children, put it plainly: "We are outraged. If you want to fly your flag, fly it. This is America."
Chris Cooke's grandfather, Alexander Christie, was a Navy sailor killed during World War II. The flag isn't decoration to the Cookes. It's personal. "We've never sued anyone in our life," Chris said. "We're just here to fly our flag."
HOA attorney Michael Kushner, based in Aliso Viejo, told media that "the law is crystal clear" and that the association is "barking up the wrong tree" — suggesting federal law is on the homeowners' side. He's right. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, passed in 2005, prohibits HOAs from banning the display of the U.S. flag on residential property.
So the law already settled this 21 years ago. The Ambiance Owners' Association apparently didn't get the memo.
The HOA offered the homeowners a 15-minute Zoom call with its board to discuss the matter. Fifteen minutes. To explain to Americans why they should be allowed to fly the flag of the country they live in.
California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has since weighed in, amplifying the homeowners' fight. The story has picked up national attention heading into the holiday week.
"We are the land of the free and home of the brave — this is crazy," Amy Cooke said.
"There's enough division," Chris added. "We shouldn't have to do this."
He's right. They shouldn't. A federal law says they don't have to. The HOA sent the letters anyway. And the homeowners, rather than folding, planted their flags deeper.
Somewhere in San Marcos, a board of volunteer bureaucrats is learning what the rest of us already knew: the people who fly the flag aren't the ones who back down.
