American flag pins should be a non-issue

For a week after a Sept. 2, 2003, memo was circulated, corrections officers in the state of… For a week after a Sept. 2, 2003, memo was circulated, corrections officers in the state of Pennsylvania were not allowed to wear American-flag pins or yellow ribbons on their uniforms.

Officers said the pins and ribbons were apolitical statements of support for troops in Iraq, including 473 reservists who had been called from the veteran-heavy ranks of Pennylvania’s corrections officers.

Corrections Secretary Jeffrey A. Beard said they violated the uniform policy, could be seen as political statements and could put pressure on those who elected not to wear the pins.

The ban – only on the flags, not the ribbons — has been temporarily lifted until a compromise can be reached. It seems the only reason good sense has prevailed, however, is coincidence.

On Sept. 2, state Rep. David Argall, R-Schuylkill, happened to be touring State Correctional Institute Graterford and got wind of the memo. He was so disgusted with Beard’s “overreaction” that he fired off a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell. In the ensuing hubbub, Beard has backed down temporarily.

Why is this fight being fought? Why on Earth are such big guns as Rendell and Argall being drawn in? This controversy is a non-issue. It’s an outrageous waste of time, energy and ink.

It’s prison guards – not prison inmates – who are at the center of this silly debate. These are men and women making a living trying to better society. They, unlike their charges, didn’t give up some of their rights when they entered the prison system.

Sure, uniforms are important. If a riot broke out, though, a tiny flag or ribbon pin won’t confuse the SWAT teams so much that they shoot the wrong folks.

Beard raised one almost logical point. If everyone who wants to wear a pin does so, those who don’t may be subject to hairy-eyeballed looks and muttered statements about patriotism. In these paranoid times, however, any American can be taken to task for her insufficient number of pieces of flair. It’s just an occupational hazard of being an American and shouldn’t be legislated out of existence.

Hopefully the prison system can relax and allow public servants to make an innocuous statement – at least until someone tries to wear a French flag. That will be a whole other can of ideological escargot.