I was supposed to be a flag bearer for one year of elementary school. At the end of 7th grade, me and another student-elect, who lived in my block, I think, because we lived near the school, spent a week learning how to hoist a flag and literally lift a rope in the air. Last year’s flag bearers taught us how to fold a flag.
But there was no flag when the eighth grade was spinning. It’s lost. My idea was not to budget for the new one, because I don’t remember raising the flag once. But I have a week of experience raising a flag 27 years ago this month, and I can tell you: it’s not difficult.
I don’t think it’s hard for Scott Lafton of the Philadelphia Flyers Center, but he certainly saw it. The Flyers sent out a press release about a flag-raising ceremony. Lafton took part in the team’s arena yesterday. He turned it into a crank – flag technology has clearly made great strides over the last three decades – to hoist a proud flag on a pole.
“Flyers is for everyone in the city of Philadelphia,” Flyers exec Valerie Camillo said in the release, “and especially in the month of Pride, we want to send a clear message that we support the LGBTQ + community.” The team does some charitable work that they have done and are doing. Cool. But I would say next time the flyers should give Scott Lafton a pair of sunglasses.
In this video, this guy doesn’t look like a professional athlete. He looks like he is struggling to raise the flag. He doesn’t seem to understand another turn of that crank. She’s sweating! It was so hot and sunny in Philly that schools were dismissed early yesterday. The sun was clear in Lafton’s eyes. But any time the Flyers lose next season, I’m going to complain about the player who fights for the job of the flagpole crank handle.