Flag Stolen From Comfort Park Doesn't Stop Celebration

BY MICHAEL HAWKINS | EDITOR OF THE COMFORT NEWS

Story originally featured in The Comfort News.

IF YOU STOP AND LOOK AT THE U.S. FLAG FLYING IN COMFORT Park today, there’s a story behind the fact that it’s there. It’s there because of actions taken by a number of people to put things back together after a crime.

At some point in the latter part of June a thief (or thieves) stole the U.S. flag that flew above Comfort Park, according to Shirley Solis, executive director of the Greater Comfort Area Chamber of Commerce, which shares responsibility for the Park with Kendall County.

“Someone took the flag from the park,” she said in an email to The Comfort News. “They also cut the rope so we cannot easily replace [it]. We have obtained a replacement flag, will get the rope and then have to locate a method/bucket truck to install. We hope to have it in place by July 4th but cannot guarantee.”

On July 1, Solis told me that BEC had volunteered to help hang the new flag. Sure enough, at about 3:15 p.m., Kurt Solis, BEC Board Director, showed up with a new rope and flag and the BEC linemen weren’t far behind. In short order, John Williams, one of the lineman, was in a bucket headed for the top of the pole to thread the new rope while his partner Austin Allen waited below to help pull the line down, tie it to the new flag and hoist it back in place.

BEC Lineman Austin Allen raises a new U.S. Flag

Michael Hawkins

The irony of the U.S. flag being stolen just prior to July 4 is, I’m sure, not lost on you. Who knows what the thief intended. Perhaps it was as simple as theft and vandalism for profit, perhaps it was a prank taken too far, perhaps it was someone who really wanted a flag and saw an easy way to have one, perhaps it was someone trying to make a statement about their discontent with—something. As is often the case where human actions are concerned, at a certain point the “why” really doesn’t matter. What matters is how those affected by the actions deal with the impacts.

So it’s important to note that as disturbing as this action is, one thing it didn’t impact was Comfort’s July 4 celebration, much of which took place in Comfort Park. People from all over Texas joined to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, “Comfort-style.” For years it has been one of the town’s defining events and the preferred place to celebrate the holiday

for thousands of Texans. Whether the flag is flying or not, visitors and residents will come to enjoy a day of fun, food, music and patriotic togetherness.

On this same note and speaking of “Comfort-style,” Solis had more to offer about the flag in the Park.

“On a brighter note,” she said, “Robert Chamberlain donated an outdoor floodlight so that the flag will be highlighted during the night-time hours. We then needed a source of power and Steve Whitaker again offered to donate his time to make it happen. He set a base in the ground to secure the light and ran the necessary underground wiring to complete the task.” Whitaker is a master electrician and owner of United

Electrical Services, A JSW Diversified Company, who has donated a great deal of time over the last two years to upgrade the electrical infrastructure in the Park. According to Solis, he’s helped by rewiring the Gazebo, installing security lights at the playground and upgrading the wiring to the outdoor pavilion and the barbecue area. Now this. And while I was at the Park shooting photographs of the linemen putting the flag back in place, Whitaker showed up. He had come to run new electrical line and conduit across the rear wall of the pavilion in order to make it safe. It was obviously in need of repair because one of the outlets was hanging by its wires having come unattached from the conduit then in place.

Margaret Stone, Chamber board president, was there unpacking hundreds of Comfort Independence Day 2019 T-shirts provided by Whitaker for the event volunteers.

Other volunteers were there setting up the silent auction in the pavilion.

The message I like to take away from all of this is that despite the acts of malice and stupidity by some, the acts of kindness and generosity by Chamberlain, Whitaker, Williams, Allen, all of the volunteers and the many others who commit them every day are the ones that count. Those are the actions about which it’s worth asking “why?” and more importantly reflecting upon how we can promote more like them in our families, our town, our state, our country and our world. Oh, and of course, in ourselves. Let’s start there.

So that’s my challenge to myself and to each of you, let’s do what we can, where we are, with what we’ve got to make our little corners of the world safer, happier, kinder and more welcoming to others.