Turning expectations upside down

Peter Uhlendorf may not be the modern Henry David Thoreau, but he certainly shares a few ideals in common with the reclusive scribe from Concord.

Uhlendorf is not refusing to pay his taxes to protest a war. He hasn't penned essays on issues of civil disobedience. But like Thoreau, who was frustrated with the Mexican-American War, Uhlendorf wanted some way to vent his opposition to the current Iraq situation. So, two years ago, when the Iraq War was at a low point, he began flying his American flag outside his home on Pepperell's Brookline Street upside down, a maritime signal used on the high seas to show a vessel is in distress.

The move, which did not stir public outcry for the last two years, has touched a nerve in town of late.

Joe Moore, post commander at Pepperell's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3291, said the Leighton Street post has received several complaints about Uhlendorf's protest in the past few weeks. Some claim flying the flag upside down is irreverent and unpatriotic. Others have lodged concerns about the condition of the flag, which was tattered and worn before Uhlendorf recently replaced it.

Moore said he had no comment on the issue, though he did say his post mailed a note to Uhlendorf, asking him to replace the old flag with a new one. He added that Uhlendorf has sent the old flag into the post, where it will be burned as part of an annual formal flag retirement ceremony.

For Uhlendorf, who says he served in the Coast Guard in the '60s as a search-and-rescue air crewman, the message he's attempting to drive home is neither unpatriotic nor an act of flag desecration. Upending the flag on the pole outside his home, he said, is merely a means of focusing scrutiny on the Bush administration and the war abroad, one which Uhlendorf called "an illegal act."

"It's an international distress signal," Uhlendorf said, during a recent phone interview. "I consider [the flag] to be a sacred thing. It can be displayed in many ways. It can be displayed in many ways with a message."

Uhlendorf, 67, a part-time salesman at a New Hampshire lumber yard, said he protested the Vietnam War in the 1960s, writing letters to Washington in an attempt to change the direction of the conflict. But, he said, letter-writing "falls on deaf ears."

Using the maritime signal of distress became his new vehicle of protest, a concept that leverages the symbolic potency of the flag as a means of generating awareness.

"I have limited ability to make a statement, and I chose that one," he said.

Sue Smith, a town resident and Pepperell's assistant assessor, said Uhlendorf is not breaking any laws by turning the flag upside down. A tattered flag is often construed as "unpatriotic and disrespectful" among veterans and other patriotic folks, though she also noted that he has recently replaced it.

Uhlendorf "is making a statement," said Smith. "I think it's one of those things: we do have certain rights."

Uhlendorf, a 23-year resident of Pepperell who has served on the town's now disbanded Dog Leash Law Study Committee, said he has received mostly positive feedback from many neighbors about his protest.

He did say he had one unpleasant exchange with a man during his recent yard sale. The man offered to buy the flag and his flagpole from him, and, after a brief conversation, Uhlendorf told the man to leave his property.

During a phone interview, Uhlendorf bristled slightly at any suggestion by others that what he was doing was unpatriotic or disrespectful to the symbolism of the flag.

"I'm a very patriotic person," he said. "If there were more patriotic people who made a stand, then maybe this war would be over quicker."