At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all.Now, I do not care much for the management staff who runs Oaks Apartments in this town in Albany, Oregon. I think they are rotten people who believe in the big lie of unifying America through diversity (that was a real propaganda banner at my old high school). We have a proud father of a son who is fighting in Iraq, despite taking illegal orders from a possibly ineligible President.
Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support.
"This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's why I fly this flag."
But to Oaks Apartment management, Clausen said, the American flag symbolizes problems.
He was told to remove the red, white and blue from both of his rides, or face eviction.
That takes guts and I think I would be very proud of any child of mine who joined the military (unless it was a pencil pushing position at the Pentagon). His father certainly is good at showing support for his son.
Anyway, what the management company did was stupid and reached a level of poor judgment that most businesses do not reach, but at the end of the day, they had every right to do so. You see, this pesky thing called property rights comes into play here. Unless Jim Clausen owns the parking lot and the apartment complex, then he has to obey whatever the property owner or the duly appointed representatives of the property owner says.
When you do not own something, you have to respect the wishes of that owner. It is common courtesy and it demonstrates that you are better than them when they make a seriously moronic proclamation like the Oaks Apartment management did. But the consumer always has a choice at the end of the day and in this case, all the consumer had to do was tell them to evict him and he could easily have made them look bad at the end of the day. It may be inconvenient, but it would certainly prevent other people from renting there.
You see, that is the beauty of the free market. When you have choices, you can always circumvent the morons and jerks in favor of those who handle their business with integrity.
A follow up to the story stated that the management staff had backed down, which is a shame. It would have been a perfect opportunity to show just how hate-filled the management staff was toward the United States when they did evict Jim Clausen. Even so, if I were Jim Clausen, I would be looking for a new place to live right now and giving them notice that when my lease is up, I will be gone.
That is how the free market system should work. And you know what is so great about it? The government did not have to get involved and tax dollars did not have to be wasted on idiots.