Sometimes small towns tell big stories about fundamental American values.
So, in tiny Rochelle Park, at the center of Bergen County, consider how the constitutional right of free expression clashed recently with basic good-taste etiquette when a resident of a neighborhood known affectionately as “The Maze” ran two flags up a pole on his front yard.
The top streamer, a red, white and blue American flag, was deliberately attached upside down — a traditional military-style signal of “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life and property,” according to Defense Department rules.
The second flag, just below the inverted U.S. banner, carried a much more explicit, four-letter message: