Kinda like that, but just not in a site.

A protest raged on a courthouse lawn,
Round a makeshift stage they charged on,
Fifteen hundred or more they say,
Had come to burn a Flag that day.
A boy held up the folded Flag,
Cursed it, and called it a dirty rag.
An OLD MAN pushed through the angry crowd,
With a rusty shotgun shouldered proud.
His uniform jacket was old and tight,
He had polished each button, shiny and bright.
He crossed that stage with a soldier's grace,
Until he and the boy stood face to face.
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH", the OLD MAN said,
"Is worth dying for, good men are dead,
So you can stand on this courthouse lawn,
And talk us down from dusk to dawn,
But before any Flag gets burned today,
This OLD MAN IS GOING TO HAVE HIS SAY!!
My father died on a foreign shore,
In a war they said would end all war.
But Tommy and I wasn't even full grown,
Before we fought in a war of our own.
And Tommy died on Iwo Jima's beach, I
n the shadow of a hill he couldn't quite reach
Where five good men raised this Flag so high,
That the WHOLE WORLD COULD SEE IT FLY.
I got this bum leg that I still drag,
Fighting for this same old Flag.
Now there's but one shot in this old gun,
So now it's time to decide which one,
Which one of you will follow our lead,
To stand and die for what you believe?
For as sure as there is a rising sun,
You'll burn before this Flag burns, son.
Now this riot never came to pass.
The crowd got quiet and that can of gas,
Got set aside as they walked away
To talk about what they had heard this day.
And the boy who had called it a "dirty rag",
Handed the OLD SOLDIER the folded Flag.
So the battle of the Flag this day was won
By a tired OLD SOLDIER with a rusty gun,
Who for one last time, had to show to some,
THIS FLAG MAY FADE, YET THESE COLORS DON'T RUN!!!

 

Jenny that is a darn good poem, thank you.

 

Ernie- I'm surprised. For you to want to do something just to spite the neighboring HOA, they must have really tweaked your buttons. You're usually one of the more level headed people on the board. I hope you post pics of whatever you do, it will no doubt be good.

 

EnviroCon- you have no idea. Howdy was right- we're the sore thumb of the neighborhood, in the sense that we're quite a bit downscale from the rest of the area. To compound matters, the high-end homes look over my rooftop at the view, something which still annoys a few of the neighbors (hey, I didn't draw up, then modify the master plan).

We've lived here almost three years, and it's been..... an education. In our old neighborhood, everyone knew each other, their kids, and watched out for each other. Here, I can count the neighbors I know on a first-name basis with one hand, fingers left over (and I'm a real people-person). Simply put, it's not an area that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. It's generally young, affluent, and..... I'm searching for the word, and not coming up with it.

In a nutshell, the next house (and yes, we've pretty much established there will be one before long) I'm going to be a lot more careful at choosing neighbohoods. You can remodel a house, you can't change the make-up of the neighborhood.

 

how does RECTAL ORIFICE sound??

 

Sure you can change the make-up of the neighborhood. You become the head of a HOA and make them submit to your tyranny and idology. Did I say that aloud?

 

well you can fly the stars and stripes in the summer, and in the winter, string it up with lights, so at night it looks like a big old 40 ft tall christmas tree...with the stars and stripes at the top..

 

I'd hate to think what would happen to any HOA that tried that around my little piece of redneck heaven....

 

I can only guess that it's bad. It usually takes someone showing an excessive amount of bigotry, condescension, or hatred to get you that fired-up. And it's a shame your neighbors choose to act like that. But, it's their loss.

 

i disagree with some of what you say, true in the aspect of things, but in reality it doesn't seem to work like it should alot of times, if it did, then states, and now the feds, wouldn't have to come up with laws combating what seems to me to be, excessive abuse of power by HOA's.

 

I did not say that HOAs are not abusive. We certainly read about the ones that are and that is a crying a** shame. The point is...many HOA members do not care enough to participate, then complain about the results.

We are pretty easy going in our HOA. In fact, we bought 229 mini-flags that stick in the ground and placed one at the sidewalk in front of each home. If the homeowner doesn't like it they can remove it.

Being the committee head of the ACC of our HOA I guess I just take it as a straight forward personal attack when someone makes a statement that "HOAs are nothing but governing bodies made up of petty, vendictive people" and "self-centered a**h***s"....and I don't appreciate it much.

While I am not beyond being an "a**h**e" from time to time....I do not feel that I am petty, vindictive, or self-centered.

While I am at it...What of the folks that sign a legal document to abide by the existing covenants and pay the applicable dues...then renege on their binding contract. We have a rolling 8% of homeowners that never pay their HOA fees. We have yet to even threat of foreclosure....but, the other 92% have to make up the difference. What is fair about that?

With that said, I fully support the efforts of those that would offer a state or US bill restricting foreclosures thru HOA actions.

 

I see two sides to the HOA issue. When you commit huge amounts of money to a home, you hope the neighbors don't have weeds four feet tall, paint the house purple, park old junk on the front lawn..... I get that. I've also seen the dark side of the HOA equation, and I'll be quite frank- I don't like it. On balance, for the next home, I'll pass a property with a restrictive HOA.

 

Parking junk on my front lawn is the reason why I opted to buy a house in a neighborhood that doesn't have an HOA. It's good be semi-rural.

But my junk still runs - barely. I'm starting my own Ford wrecking yard.

Happy 4th, Ernie... you personable person.

-Kerry

 

Jeez some of that crap would get you shot here. I walk out front...there are no flags out. Everyone took them down when it started raining about an hour ago. As soon as it stops raining, everyone will go outside and put them back up.

We have no HOA here. Thank God. It's our house, we paid for it, we own it, you're not going to tell us what we can and cannot do on OUR property. There are way too many rednecks around here to have any sort of HOAs. They don't really even exist in our city to the best of my knowledge, I know of none of them.

I relate it to a sort of HOA that was up where our land is. We got 54 acres divided into two fields. Barns, pond, all of that fun stuff. When we bought it the pipe fence was maroon but it was old and peeling. The two other guys who owned places around ours, both of whom had houses on it and did not use it for anything productive, painted their pipe fences white. One of them had the nerve to demand to my family our fence be painted white immediately so it "would blend it and appear to be one solid area". Of course, his fence was white, his house was white, he wanted it to appear to be his. He wanted the barn to match.

Needless to say, we have a jet black pipe fence running around our place now.

RP
Zach

 

You would be surprised at the # of HOAs you have in Wylie and Sachse.