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 Editorials | Issues | October 2007 
Flags Going Back Up at Museum After Threats Brought Them Down
 Dianna M. Nαρez - Arizona Republic
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 |  | We decided if we're going to fight any fight, we're going to fight what we felt was the morally correct fight. We are not a political organization. Our work as conservationists, researchers and educators has nothing to do with politics.
- Sophia Kaluzniacki |  | |
The flags of the United States, Arizona and Mexico are going back up in front of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, in Tucson where they flew side by side for more than 50 years until last week.
Sophia Kaluzniacki, chair of the museum board, said Saturday the museum "caved" to anonymous threats from people angered to see the American flag next to the Mexican flag.
She called an emergency meeting Thursday after receiving more than 250 calls and e-mails regarding the flags removal earlier in the week.
The museum is also increasing its security budget by $100,000.
In a unanimous vote, Kaluzniacki said the board reversed its earlier decision to remove the three flags. She said the board wants the flags flying again as soon as next week. Kaluzniacki said that the flags had flown for years without soliciting a public response, but that threats increased as the debate over immigration raged in the past few years.
"We decided if we're going to fight any fight, we're going to fight what we felt was the morally correct fight. We are not a political organization. Our work as conservationists, researchers and educators has nothing to do with politics," Kaluzniacki said. "This is a sign to extremists - we will not give into threats."
Threats were made against animals, plants and the museum, she said and the Pima County Sheriff's Office advised the museum to take the threats seriously.
The museum, she said, is working with the Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. and decided Thursday to add an additional $100,000 to their security budget of about $220,000 to deal with the threats.
The board also hopes the addition of a an interpretive station that explains the museum's binational focus on the desert, which extends into Mexico, will help people understand the reason behind flying the three flags.
The flag was given as a gift to the museum in 1954 from the then-governor of Sonora, Mexico, she said.
Juan Manuel Calderon, the Mexican consul in Tucson, said Saturday that Mexico heralds the museum's decision.
"The flag was a gift and a symbol of friendship and brotherhood. The flag spoke to the importance our nations place on this shared resource, the Sonora Desert," he said. "That the museum stood up to threats should be commended and serve as an example."
The museum plans to raise the flags on separate poles that would be flown at the same height, according to national and international flag protocol.
Kaluzniacki said complaints about the flags ranged from anger that the American flag was not raised higher than the Mexican flag to anger about the Mexican flag's size or stance in front of the museum.
Rafael Campos of Flag World in Central Phoenix said that he regularly receives calls from people complaining about American flags flown next to Mexican flags in the Valley.
"People call me all the time," he said.
"They want me to tell them they're right and that the Mexican flag should be taken down. But they're wrong and I have to tell them this."
"Flag protocol calls for flags of nations to be flown at equal heights and on separate poles with the American flag to the left. People should get educated before they make threats." |
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