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To the editor:
Open letter to "Madam Mayor and City Council," sent by Judd Hoff to public input email, on the Nov. 28, 2022 eve of amendment passage to City Code 9.53 (the flag code).
Please take a moment to reflect on the implications of your actions before you vote, tonight, because once you finalize this amendment, it will make you the most recent legislative body in the country to speak out against the use of altered flag designs, such as the blue and red line flags.
You could have repealed City Code 9.53 altogether, but instead chose to preserve the language which condemns such designs.
After tonight, expectations will be high, and the public will be watching to see if the leaders within your own city departments take your new bench-mark of standard-bearing seriously, and will be watching to see if the needed measures are taken to reflect the will of the council, and the more conservative and traditional standard for flag respect that you are upholding for our entire community tonight.
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Thank you for renewing these standards in our own era, and thank you for bringing city departments and employees into compliance. This is especially important when one bears in mind that such altered designs continue to constitute illegal criminal misdemeanors under Minnesota Statute 609.40.
Judd Hoff
Alexandria, MN
