Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I was appalled at the image featured on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this past Sunday, October the 17th.  As you know the headline read, “American dream is crushed as foreclosure crisis spreads,” with the subheading, “Idyllic suburban areas fall victim to stubborn unemployment, plummeting home values.”  The headings framed an image of a garbage dumpster containing the American flag.  This image is not a testament to the house market crisis, but rather a testament to the American value crisis.  

I speak of an American value crisis, as there must be one in order for an image of our flag’s desecration to be featured on the front page of a newspaper that is viewed across the country.  Regardless of the unfortunate circumstances of the original owners of the flag in question, I would expect no less than someone to step up and find an appropriate place for the apparently unwanted flag.  Find any local Boy Scout and give the flag over for a proper retirement.  The banner of our nation deserves absolutely no less.  

An additional problem with the use of the flag image is the implication that the American dream is contingent on the ownership of a home.  The claim that the “American dream is crushed as foreclosure crisis spreads” flies in the face of all that America has stood for over her life.  The Founding Fathers established this nation as a refuge from oppression and persecution.  Have we forgotten what is truly means to be an American?  It’s not in the value of our homes or their contents.  It’s not in even owning a home or a car or even a vacation home.  One can live the American dream in an apartment just as much as they can a stately suburban home.  

I know of people in other countries who risk contracting deadly diseases because they lack access to clean water.  There are children who cannot go to school because their families cannot afford it or because they risk being abducted and forced into slavery if they leave their villages.  There are countless instances across the globe where basic human rights do not exist.  Yet here in America we enjoy access to clean water.  It is unheard of for a child here in America to die of Malaria.  We do not fear abduction and slavery. 

It is true that we have difficulties in the United States.  I do not claim otherwise.  The bottom line is, however, we live the American dream simply by being Americans.  

I have held the St. Louis Post Dispatch in very high regards over the years.  I am gravely disappointed that such a blatant defamation of the American flag has been featured anywhere in the paper’s contents, let alone the front page. 

I seek the location of the flag in question.  If it has not already been removed and properly taken care of, I humbly ask for the opportunity to do so.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely...