KING, N.C. — The Christian flag is everywhere in the small city of King: flying in front of barbecue joints and hair salons, stuck to the bumpers of trucks, hanging in windows and emblazoned on T-shirts.
The relatively obscure emblem has become omnipresent because of one place it can’t appear: atop a metal pole flying over a war memorial in a public park.
The City Council decided last month to remove the flag from above the monument in Central Park after a resident complained, and after city leaders got letters from the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State urging them to remove it.
That decision incensed veterans groups, churches and others in King, a city of about 6,000 near Winston-Salem.
Ray Martini, 63, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, launched a round-the-clock vigil to guard a replica Christian flag hanging on a wooden pole in front of the war memorial.
Since Sept. 22, the vigil has been bolstered by home- cooked food delivered by supporters, sleeping bags and blankets donated by a West Virginia man and offers of support from New York to Louisiana.
“This monument stands as hallowed ground,” said Martini. “It kills me when I think people want to essentially desecrate it.”
The protesters are concerned not only about the flag, which was one of 11 flying above the memorial when it was dedicated six years ago, but about a nearby metal sculpture depicting a soldier kneeling before a cross.
“I won’t let it fall,” Martini said. “I have already told the city, before you can take it down, I’ll tie myself to it and you can cut me down first.”
The ACLU has no problem with the vigil.
The protesters, though, aren’t satisfied with the vigil. They’re planning a Saturday rally in support of their ultimate goal, which is for the city to restore the Christian flag to the permanent metal pole on the memorial.
