Don’t forget: The Post New Years party is tonight at 8pm and features all-you-can-eat buffet & drinks for just $35! There are still some tickets available and it is open to the public, so feel free to drop in!

It’s a sad, sad day in America when a veteran – a Medal of Honor recipient, no less – is ordered to not fly the American flag.

Col. Van T. Barfoot, a local Medal of Honor winner, is under the gun from his Henrico County community’s homeowner association.

In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion.

In a priority mail letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond is ordering Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face “legal action being brought to enforce the Covenants and Restrictions against you.” The letter states that Barfoot will be subject to paying all legal fees and costs in any successful legal proceeding pursued by the homeowner association’s board.

It is disgusting and offensive that a man who fought for the freedoms of this country is now being persecuted by the people that enjoy the freedoms he fought for.

Home Owners Associations aren’t a good thing. They’re making the excuse that the issue is the flagpole itself, but it’s obvious the HOA could choose to rule that the flagpole is inoffensive. Instead, they’re exercising their freedom to bring a world of trouble upon themselves.