Councilman Robert Holden helped replace a local family’s American flag that was vandalized in Glendale last week after it was ripped down and left on the sidewalk.
The Pardue family has been putting up the American flag on 84th and Myrtle Avenue in front of their house for about four years.
This year, Robert Pardue and his friends put the flag up on Memorial Day, and on June 6, the flag was torn down, ripped up and left on the sidewalk. A neighbors home security camera was able to catch it on video. The video shows a man on a bike tearing the flag down and leaving it.
“I’ve lived there my whole entire life,” Pardue said. “We’re sick and tired of our property, that we work hard for, and what we stand for, like the American flag, be torn down by some punk.”
Pardue posted the footage on the Glendale Civic Association Facebook page and Holden’s office contacted him that day to buy a new flag and help put it back up.
“It’s a great tradition and so is the patriotism in the district,” Holden said. “We’ve seen a lot of anti-American vandalism lately in the district, from the attack on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Elmhurst to the attack on the flag. The kind of neighborhood and district that I [represent], people stand up, they’re not going to take that stuff.”
Steve Pardue, Robert Pardue’s father, takes great pride in the American flag and said he was hurt by the vandalism.
“My father served. My uncle served. My grandfather served,” Steve Pardue said. “It’s because of these men that we have the freedom we have today. And for someone to rip it down is despicable.”
Steve Pardue said he was disappointed in the vandal’s response to patriotism.
“It’s a different world we live in today,” Steve Pardue said. “Nobody respects the American flag. I don’t agree with some flags, but I wouldn’t touch someone else’s flag; that’s what America’s about.”
The Pardue’s said they don’t have any plans to stop the tradition, especially since they have a new flag, courtesy of Holden.
“No one’s stopping me,” Steve Pardue said. “I keep an eye on that flag real closely now.”
The new 6-foot-by-10-foot American flag will stay up until Labor Day.
