The measure of patriotism

[Times photos: Patty Yablonski] A huge American flag hangs outside the Palladium Theatre in downtown St. Petersburg.

By TOM ZUCCO

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 23, 2001

Does the size of your flag correspond to your love of the country? What if you don’t have a flag at all?

Two days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he drove all over St. Petersburg desperately trying to buy an American flag. He looked in Clearwater and Tampa, too. Every store he stopped in was sold out.

They had those little plastic flags, like the kind they give out at baseball games. But nothing large enough to say what Steve Woodland needed to say.

So Woodland and his wife went to Lowe's, bought a gallon each of red, white and blue exterior latex paint, and went to work on the north side of their house on Pinellas Point Drive.

As the flag took shape, neighbors stopped by to watch and admire his work. Cars passing the house honked their horns and cheered. It took him all day.

His masterpiece is 9 feet high, 14 1/2 feet long and can be seen from two blocks away. And like any artist, Woodland signed his work; there's a small "SW" in the lower right-hand corner.

"I'm never going to take it off," said Woodland, 40. "It's a tribute to the people who died in New York, especially the police and firemen. And it shows support for our country. I want people to know. Everybody should feel that way."

He could have waited for the stores to restock or bought a lot of little flags and planted them out front. He didn't have to paint the side of his house.

"Well," he said, smiling, "yes, I did." Woodland, who owns a home repair business, explained that his father spent more than 20 years in the Navy and his 104-year-old grandfather is one of only a few thousand surviving World War I veterans.

"If you don't fly one (an American flag)," Woodland added, "why are you here?"

Since Sept. 11, America has been wrapped in flag fever. It's like the Fourth of July to the 10th power. Flags by the tens of thousands have emerged from closets and store shelves and found their way onto poles and porches. They're on roofs, in car windows and flapping behind Harley-Davidsons.

And some of the banners are huge -- 20 feet long or longer. They're draped from downtown buildings, wrapped around office pillars and flying high over car dealerships and family restaurants.

But outside plenty of other homes and businesses, there is no flag.

And that raises a couple of questions.

Is there a relationship between the size of one's flag and the degree of patriotism that person has?

And what about people who choose not to display a flag? Are they in some way misguided? Do they not get it?

Or worse, are they disloyal?

The All-Florida Orthopedic Association, on Fourth Street N in St. Petersburg, displays its patriotism in the shape of a gigantic flag.

Several times in the past few weeks, at about lunchtime, a handful of people gathered on a busy corner in downtown St. Petersburg to hold up USA signs and wave American flags. One of the regulars was a man who frantically waved a flag the size of a bedspread. He had to use both hands and lean backward so he could helt it.

William Hafling, a St. Petersburg psychologist, has seen that man. He's also watched as people have hung flags on everything but the family dog.

"A lot of people are probably a little scared, a bit insecure, and wondering what can they do," he said. "And while waiting, they're thinking, "I can show people I love my country, and no matter what they (the terrorists) tried to pull on us, they can't take our flag away from us."'

But is bigger better?

"It's sort of like having to drive only a few miles to and from the grocery store," Hafling answered, "and needing a huge vehicle because it makes you feel safer in traffic.

"They (the people who display huge flags) mean well and probably don't know what else to do right now. This (terrorism in America) is a whole new thing to them.

"And it could be a way of controlling anxiety. It's better than sitting there being angry and frustrated. You're doing something."

There may also be "a kind of bravery and defiance to putting up a big flag. It's saying, "Come and bomb us. Take us on. Come on over to the Smithers' house. We'll show you guys."'

Woodland said in his case, he just needed to do it.

"I really don't understand why you wouldn't want to fly a flag," he said. "Maybe some people can't afford to buy one or they weren't brought up right.

"All I know is that every time I see mine, it puts a smile on my face."

Steve Woodland, right, and stepson Pieter Westervelt, 15, stand outside the Woodland home in St. Petersburg. Woodland painted the gigantic flag on the side of his house, he says, because he “couldn’t find an American flag that was large enough, anywhere.”

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.