Mayday
The U.S. Flag Code holds that the flag should never be flown upside down
except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
Leonard Crow Dog, in his book Crow Dog (co-authored with Richard Erdoes), wrote that in February 1972, 16,000 people travelled to Gordon, Nebraska to protest prosecutors’ failure to charge the killers of Raymond Yellow Thunder with murder
And like the ghost dancers of 1890, we came with American flags flying upside down as a sign of distress and a cry for justice.
Earlier this year, on May 5, 2009, Reverend Michael Pfleger, famous for mocking Hilary Clinton from the pulpit during the last Presidential election primaries, started flying the American flag upside down outside St. Sabine’s church as a protest against gun violence in Chicago.
Yesterday, on December 2, 2009, BLM District Manager Gene Seidlitz planned to sign a “No Significant Impact” finding that will clear the way for a scheduled round-up of 2,700 wild horses, including mares and their young foals, from the Calico Complex herd areas in Nevada.
Seidlitz’s finding was made without any independent, verifiable scientific basis for rounding-up the horse bands in the dead of winter, in the face of significant public opposition to the round-up and at an estimated cost of nearly $1 million American taxpayers dollars.
This indifference to science, public opinion and cost indicates a federal government that is disconnected from reality and the American people. The relentless round-ups show a callous disregard for legal process and contempt for Congress and the will of the people.
Taken together with the announced build up of troops in Afghanistan, the continued presence of American soldiers in Iraq, and legislators dithering about health care, we are clearly facing extreme danger to life and to property–from our own public servants.
Mayday.
My Healthy Horse 