Edward Brown, judge advocate of the William Bradford Turner American Legion Post 265, read this open letter to the Garden City Village Board of Trustees during a recent meeting and requested it be reprinted in the Garden City Life.

My name is Edward T. Brown. I have been a resident of Garden City since 1955. In fact, I have had the honor of serving on the 10-man committee of Garden City East in the early 1960s. Tonight, I am here as the Judge Advocate of the William Bradford Turner American Legion Post 265 of Garden City. I have been asked by our commander, John Donovan, who is presently in California on business, to represent our Legion Post at your meeting.

Our Post holds each member of the board of trustees of our village in very high regard. However, we are truly concerned that your enforcement of the 70-year-old flagpole law may be invading the constitutional right of freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the New York State Constitution of some of our Garden City residents.

We understand that the flagpole restrictions law was enacted for safety reasons in order to protect against a flagpole falling into the street and injuring someone and/or to protect against the blockage of a roadway in case of a flagpole falling. Such is a valid zoning purpose, but the same could be said about trees on a person's lawn and yet there is no law against the height of trees.

I have lived in Garden City for 47 years and I have never seen or even heard of a flagpole falling into any street. In fact, even though the flagpole law has been in existence for 70 years, I am informed from reliable sources that the village does not have any record of a flagpole falling into the street or blocking the roadway. But there are records of many trees falling into the roadway in past severe storms in Garden City. Yet, there is no village law restricting the height of trees on a resident's lawn. It, thus, appears that the old flagpole law was based on pure speculation without any sound basis in fact.

The possibility of a flagpole falling is so minimal and so remote, and the number of flagpoles involved in excess of the law is so very small that, upon due consideration, one can only arrive at the inescapable conclusion that there is no need for this flagpole law at all. At the very least, it is harmful to the patriotism of village residents.

With this in mind, our Legion Post has enacted a resolution recommending the retroactively grandfathering-in of the present existing alleged violators of the flagpole law of Garden City and in addition, to further request the board of trustees of this village to rescind the flagpole law entirely. The commander has requested that I notify you that a copy of the resolution will be delivered to the board within the week. In short, we would like to see the entire flagpole law restriction repealed.

Those residents who, prior to the 9/11 Twin Tower tragedy, have displayed the American flag in excess of the zoning code's height restrictions, are great Americans merely showing their true love of our great country. And the current alleged violators are merely showing their respect for those who have suffered the loss of life in the 9/11 Twin Tower tragedy. They meant no harm to anyone. They should no be punished. They should not be fined. They should not be charged as disorderly conduct violators. Instead, they should be recognized as America's fellow citizens, like yourselves.

Therefore, our American Legion Post respectfully requests that you, as a board of trustees, set a new policy whereby there will never again be any restrictions in Garden City on how high our American flag can fly. Thank you and God bless you in carrying out your duties in the best interests of all our Garden City residents.

Edward Brown