Today is United Nations Day. It celebrates the signing of the official charter on October 24, 1945.
For decades, Westport has honored UN Day by flying flags of the member nations on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge downtown.
That’s fitting: A longtime resident (and Juilliard-trained pianist), she was a staunch advocate for the United Nations and the national and state levels. Locally she helped originate jUNe Day, which for over 50 years has brought UN officials and their families to Westport, for a summer day of hospitality and fun.
Flags of dozens of nations were placed on the bridge this weekend, for today’s UN Day. (Not all are flown — there is not enough room for all 193 member countries.) Passersby often try to identify as many as they can.
Part of the 2021 UN Day display. (Photo/Tracy Porosoff)
But this year’s display drew the ire of one Westporter. David Halpert writes:
“On Saturday, I was appalled to find the Russian Federation flag flying on our bridge.
“Would we fly a flag of Nazi Germany in Westport? A flag of a nation that is killing thousands of innocent people in Ukraine has no place in Westport.
“My first reaction was to burn it down. My wife stopped me. We live in a civilized country, and should behave as civilized people.
“So I looked up the organizers of the event [Westport’s International Hospitality Committee], and made a phone call. It was surprising to me the ignorance of the organizers who hang a random selection of flags just to fill the spots.
“I expressed my disgust of hanging a Russian Federation flag in the middle of Westport while the country it represents is blackmailing all freedom-loving nations in the UN with their nuclear bombs, and continue the murder of innocent children in Ukraine.
“Perhaps sitting in our warm multi-million dollar homes we forget that people of Ukraine are being left without electricity and heat for the winter.
“I was promised that the mistake would be corrected in the morning, and was glad to see that the Russian flag is now gone.
“Let us never forget what the word ‘freedom’ means, and that we may never be free as long as countries like that exist.”
I contacted Westport International Hospitality Committee chair Bill Haas. He confirmed the story, and provided important background information.
The flag display is a joint effort of his group and the UN Association of Southwestern Connecticut, with which he is also associated. The UNASC, for example, pays for new or replacement flags.
Haas had concerns from the start about displaying the Russian flag. “This war is reprehensible,” he says. “But they’re a member of the UN. We need to maintain dialogue and communication with them. That’s why the US has diplomatic relations with them too.”
There are not enough stanchions on the bridge for all 193 UN flags, Haas says. So the Hospitality Committee — which places the flags each year, with help from town workers — has discretion as to which ones are flown. (They try to make sure all jUNe Day visitors see their own flags each year.)
“There are a lot of bad actors in the UN,” Haas — a former staffer there — notes. “We work with them behind the scenes, to address things like human rights issues, with no publicity.”
Yet when Halpert made his complaint on Saturday, Haas realized it had validity. A few years ago, someone thought the North Korea flag should be removed. It was.
This time, Haas says, “I thought about it, and recognized my mistake. I was very sympathetic. I realized it had to come down.”
Yesterday at 8 a.m., he removed it.
“I want to maintain positive relations with the town and residents,” he says. “And as an American citizen, I was very sympathetic to the complaint.”
However, he took issue with one part of Halpert’s email.
The United Nations did not exist in the 1930s and early ’40s, so Nazi Germany could not have been part of it. Nor was it part of the League of Nations.
“The UN is important, but it’s not perfect,” Haas says. “It’s a work in progress.”
(“06880” is indeed “Where Westport Meets the World.” Please click here to help support this blog.)
Actually, Nazi Germany DID belong to the League of Nations, but only through October 1933.
dialogue and communication can not defeat evil
Five permanent members of the UN Security Council
I’m 25% Russian from my mother’s side of the family. As we know, Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. In my opinion, Russia is a gas station with nuclear weapons. Have you ever walked into a store and bought something that said “Made in Russia?” We’re lucky Biden is President because he is a strong advocate of NATO and has handled this “ gas station” very effectively since the February invasion! Remember who called Putin savvy and a genius after the invasion? I’ll give you a hint. It’s the same guy who professed his love and admiration for Kim Jung Un.
After the Republicans sweep the coming election, our own flag should fly at half mast.
Thank you David Halpert for using your voice and standing up for the marginalized and oppressed.
Kudos to the gentleman who recognized this flag and what it represents. And did something about it!!! We all need to step up! Here in Florida I just attended a event to benefit 40 children from Ukraine that were brought here with nothing! Not even their parents. Imagine your children sent across the world without you, because your both dead!
I’m more concerned about the actions of USA citizens and their denial of facts What does outbiwn flag stand for ??
Wow, I had no idea that the flag shouldn’t be flown because all citizens that are of Russian descent should not be represented. I had no idea america was not opening and not inclusive…
Don’t let small things distract you from the larger issues we refuse to answer.
I am Russianand a proud US citizen as i have lived in the US most of my life. I am a volunteer fundraiser for a Ukrainian charity to help children and women in Ukraine (Big Dream Children’s Foundation). I’m deeply saddened at the actions Russia has taken, but the Flag isn’t Putin or his government. The flag is a country of people, many of whom are very much against what is happening. There are thousands of Russians in the US and many of them have Ukranian support flags on their Facebook, send aid however they can etc. It’s sad to see the flag being taken down. Should I explain to my kids that Russians are now bad people and are not welcome in Westport?
Taking down the flag was a very immature and petty gesture
Spot on. Agree with you one hundred percent – couldn’t come up with the words to convey this sentiment. There are countries within which atrocities happen every day. Do we remove the flags representing those countries? No. The outrage expressed towards the Russian flag, while sincere and not entirely without basis, seems more like moral posturing (or virtue signaling, if you will) than anything else. There are people in Russia who are risking their lives and are jailed for standing up to this war. EVERY DAY. This flag represents them as well.
I agree with Tatyana. I believe that the Russian people are victims of their current government, that the entire nation is not responsible for the depradations of their government and that the flag stands for the people, not the current regime. A better statement of our compassion might be to leave a space or two empty on either side of it, perhaps with Ukraine and the US in the next adjacent spaces. Removing the flag denies the struggle of those fleeing the country, and those staying, resisting and going to prison.
The mere removal of the flag seems petulant and even bigoted, much in the same vein as the current victimization of Asians and Muslims.
Context is everything. We shouldn’t try to ‘cancel’ Russia outright, but its current actions are an affront to everything the United Nations stands for, so this action seems appropriate and indeed laudable. When it comes to waving flags, all Russians everywhere, including the voices on this comments thread, take responsibility for their country’s actions on the world stage. So too the citizens of the USA who were made answerable for the actions of their leaders, including the illegal invasion of Iraq. If you feel shock or anger at being shamed by the international community, even at this local level, then do something about it and take the monster Putin down. At the end of the day, we get the political leaders we deserve.
To some of you that feel offended by removing the flag of Russian Federation I would like to just say the following: “There are plenty of good people all over the world that are victims of governments that they didn’t elect in free democratic elections. Unfortunately, their national flags represent the government, not the people. The Olympics handled this dilemma elegantly when they didn’t allow the Russian Federation to send an official flag carrying delegation (due to their systematic doping scandals),yet allowed individual Russian athletes to participate. In a civilized world, it’s possible to hold more than one conflicting viewpoint”
I feel offended that the flag of Israel is still standing and it should be take down. Israel occupies and forces Palestinians to live in The West Bank and The Gaza Strip against their wishes. They are forced to live in terrible living conditions because the Israeli government has barred them from moving and settling into the rest of the country. Meanwhile, Israel continues to expand and build additional settlements for their own people in The West Bank, but they do not allow the Palestinians to do the same. They are essentially occupying the Palestinians solely because they are Palestinian. In addition to war crimes committed by the IDF and Israeli government from bombing hospitals, desalination plants, and schools. While forming an apartheid state in occupied lands is a violation of International Law.
Bring critical of Israel or of the policies of the Israeli government is not automatically anti semitic. I’m Jewish but I don’t stand with the atrocities committed by a government in the name of Judaism.
Ben
1. Disclosure – I grew up in Israel and one of the reasons I moved to the US is my disagreement with the Israeli policy in the West Bank.
2. I am not going to get into Israel/Palestinians/Jewish discussion with you (we can do it some other time)
3. That said you wrote – “Israel occupies and forces Palestinians to live in The West Bank and The Gaza Strip against their wishes. They are forced to live in terrible living conditions because the Israeli government has barred them from moving and settling into the rest of the country.”
I assume you live in Westport (but my comment apply to every US state), and if that is the case, your house sits on land taken from the Paugussett tribe (that you did not personally took the land is irrelevant). You live in a country that de-facto forcing native Americans to live in Indian reservation in poverty, and broke the little it promised them (i.e. Oklahoma v Castro-Huerta). A country that occupies/colonize island 7,000 miles away=American Samoa for over a 100 years and still think that there should be different rules for “alien races, differing from us,” and expressing concern over “savages” becoming “citizens of the US”.
At least be honest and if you demand the removal of the Israeli flag for the above reasons you should also demand the removal of the US flag.
I, as opposed to you, am fine with both flags being on display. There are issues everywhere.
While I agree with your original stance and commend your point of view, I think it’s only fair to point out as a third party observer that there is nothing explicitly ‘anti-Semitic’ in Mr Gray’s comment. Criticisms of the Israeli government and the IDF are not necessarily anti-semitic, nor unpatriotic even.
Ben,
1. Disclosure – I grew up in Israel and one of the reasons I moved to the US was my disagreement with the Israeli policy in the west bank.
2. I will not go into the Israeli/Palestinian conflict this time.
3. You wrote – “Israel occupies and forces Palestinians to live in The West Bank and The Gaza Strip against their wishes. They are forced to live in terrible living conditions because the Israeli government has barred them from moving and settling into the rest of the country.”
I assume you live in Westport (but my response apply to the entire country). As such your house is on Paugussett tribe land – it does not matter that you personally did not drive them from their land. You personally benefit from it. In addition, the US government de-facto forced the small number of surviving native American (an estimated 12 million were killed) to live in Indian Reservation in deep poverty, and keep taking away the little rights they were promised (OKLAHOMA v. CASTRO-HUERTA ). For more than a 100 years the US is occupying/colonizing islands 7,000 miles away=American Samoa with the view that “there should be different rules for “alien races, differing from us,” and expressing concern over “savages” becoming “citizens of the United States.”. Yes, this is the official US view to this date.
If you were honest and consistent, you would have asked for the removal of the US flag as well, along with many other countries such has China that operates concentration camps where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs are held.
I, as opposed to you, am fine with both flags being on display recognizing that issues exist all around the world.
Giyora,
I don’t live in Westport, I live in Germany now. I came back this past weekend to visit friends living in the area to witness the flag display. The flag of China is not present therefore it wasn’t mention it in my comment. I agree that the flag of China should be taken down for their government is engaged in genocide and oppression of Uyghurs. As well as the flag of Iran, whose regime is launching a brutal crackdown on their own citizens as well as their involvement in the Ukraine conflict. And many others (including the US) but that’s a discussion for another day.
And yes, you can say that I, yourself, and millions of immigrants that came over the years benefitted from the colonization of America. If you don’t like the flag you any better ideas?
But it does not absolve you or your government from committing an ongoing hostile occupation of a land that was never theirs. I’m Jewish and had family that died in the Holocaust. But I’m ashamed that a government uses my religion as justification to conquer, oppress, and murder innocent civilians.
Also who is Dan Woog silencing the opposition again? What happened to the previous comments/replies?
Giyora,
I don’t live in Westport, I live in Germany now. I came back this past weekend to visit friends living in the area to witness the flag display. The flag of China is not present therefore it wasn’t mention it in my comment. I agree that the flag of China should be taken down for their government is engaged in genocide and oppression of Uyghurs. As well as the flag of Iran, whose regime is launching a brutal crackdown on their own citizens as well as their involvement in the Ukraine conflict. And many others (including the US) but that’s a discussion for another day.
And yes, you can say that I, yourself, and millions of immigrants that came over the years benefitted from the colonization of America. If you don’t like it appeal to the Hospitality Committee and make your case.
But it does not absolve you or your government from committing an ongoing hostile occupation of a land that was never theirs. I’m Jewish and had family that died in the Holocaust. But I’m ashamed that an government uses my religion as justification to occupy/conquer, oppress, and murder innocent civilians. As a Jew I expect more out of you.
Can’t go into the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Classic move
On the other hand, is Dan Woog deleting the comments again? What happened to the previous comments/replies?
I am sorry for your losses during Nazi occupation. I, too, lost distant and also unknown relatives. I would remind you that the Palestinian mantra has always been “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Simply stated, no Jews. And if the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in his 1941 meeting with Adolf Hitler, had had his way, the Palestinian Jews eventually would have been murdered. (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-mufti-and-the-f-uuml-hrer)
Why not just take down all the flags except for those of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Lesotho, and Luxembourg. Maybe then, everyone would be happy? LOL
Dick,
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was only in power because of British Mandate, of course they won’t be without sin. It still does not justify the actions of the current apartheid regime. But us Jews had to take over someone else’s land because we believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help? Thank god I left.
It’s not what you do or don’t believe, it’s what others think you believe. And if the tide turns again, remember what Golda Meir supposedly said to Joe Biden just before the 1973 Yom Kippur War: “We have a secret weapon … You see, we have no place else to go.”
Oh yes Golda Meir, the PM who was quoted in saying that “There were no such thing as Palestinians,” to the Washington Post in 1969. Or “When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? … It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist”. The justification of having “nowhere else to go” is a lazy age old excuse for their actions when in reality Jews can live and be safe anywhere in the world.
Good luck in your Germany, which is almost as judenrein as Palestine would have been had the Jews not reclaimed their historical homeland in1948. Had the Palestinians then said yes instead of no, there would’ve been two independent states. Instead the Palestinians have missed every subsequent opportunity for nationhood.
Judenrein? Have you stopped looking at the news since 1945? I don’t know where you get your information from but I can personally vouch that the Jewish community here in Munich (and everywhere else in Germany) is alive and well. There are synagogues, many restored nicely and kosher restaurants. There are Jewish museums, lectures sponsored by the Jewish community and Jewish studies courses in the universities. Even the Bundeswehr (Reserves part-time) I experienced no discrimination for my Jewish heritage. Even got to participate in the Großer Zapfenstreich for Angela Merkels send off last year. You can see me in the YouTube video below marching and holding the torch in formation. Germany moved on from it’s past, the world moved on. And people (like yourself) keep saying the same thing until the grave; and the world keeps spinning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86uJ19mYgLI&ab_channel=Jun-ichiAmano
As for the Palestinians rejecting the “opportunity” of nationhood really wasn’t a fair deal. You realize the hypocrisy here? Foreign invaders come in and occupy your entire country. Steal your home, your land that your ancestors lived and built. Then ask for peace when they’ve already taken more than 50% of your country, destroyed your home and killed your family? It’s understandable why there’s such turmoil there. It’s the same scenario playing out in the annexed territories of Ukraine.
Yup, “ Foreign invaders come in and occupy your entire country. Steal your home, your land that your ancestors lived and built.” Not the same as the original invaders, but we returned! Auf weidersehn.
When are they taking the American flag down for the hundreds of thousands killed in illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq just to name two. The hypocrisy of the West and America is beyond the pale. Let’s cancel Solzhenitsyn too since he was a Russian nationalist who was friendly with Putin and denounced NATO for their never ending encroachment on Russia. And let’s all boycott the Bolshoi or Tolstoy and Chekhov too while we’re at it.
As a Vietnam VET who is proud to stand with the approximately 80 million VETS still alive, I dare you to attempt to take down the American flag. To condemn our service to the country with even the mention of the Russian culture while they commit atrocities in Ukraine is moronic.