http://www.townofhampstead.us/press.htm#Gadsen%20Flag



PRESS RELEASE


For Immediate Release


August 25, 2009


Hampstead to Fly Protest Flag


In an act of protest, Hampstead Mayor Haven N. Shoemaker has ordered the Town’s municipal flag to be replaced by the historic Gadsen “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. Mayor Shoemaker will raise the flag after a brief ceremony at the War Memorial in Hampstead at 6 p.m., September 1. The timing of the ceremony coincides with anticipated cuts in state funding to local governments including Hampstead.


“We have the so-called stimulus which is nothing more than an unprecedented issuance of debt. We have ObamaCare. In Maryland, we have a complete failure by Governor O’Malley and the Legislature to balance the state budget,” Shoemaker said. “The $3.8 billion in federal money sent to Maryland was wasted on pork barrel projects and social program spending rather than on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Now the State is dumping their failure of fiscal leadership into our laps.”


The Gadsen Flag has become a popular symbol of the recent Tea Party movement. The historic yellow flag features a timber rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread On Me.” When asked how long he expected to fly the flags, Shoemaker shrugged and responded, “We’ll see.”

Makes a fine looking flag.

If at first you don't secede, try try again...