Outrage has erupted after construction workers were prohibited from flying the American flag while working at a national park in Alaska.
The crew was working on a $207 million Federal Highway Administration project — specifically a bridge they’re building in Alaska’s Denali National Park — when park superintendent Brooke Merrell reached out to the project manager complaining about the flags.
She said that people had been complaining about the flags and then ordered the workers to stop flying them from because they were allegedly distracting from the “park experience,” according to the Alaska Watchman, which broke the story on Thursday.
Denali National Park superintendent Brooke Merrell says no American flags can be flown in Denali National Park. But their website gives a list of LGBTQ flags you can fly, and even showes pics of them being flown in the park. People like this need to be unemployed. https://t.co/fcAQttFZLT pic.twitter.com/hACTox4r64
— Maga Rooster (@rooster3631) May 24, 2024
“The trucks are flying these American flags, about a foot atop the trucks, about three-foot by four-foot flags, and they said they don’t want this,” a contractor working on the project told the Alaska Watchman. “They’re saying it isn’t conducive and it doesn’t fit the park experience.”
“Here I am in a national park, and we’re being told we can’t fly the American flag. I understand there are rules for contractors working in the national parks, but you wouldn’t think flying the American flag would be part of those rules,” he added.
Especially since, he noted, the flags didn’t become a problem at the park until it began running tour buses.
The contractor for his part blames Merrell and her only for this fiasco.
“When these liberals get in charge of these parks, that’s how it is,” he said.
He may have a point.
“Prior to moving to Alaska, she worked for the City of Portland and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, along with left-leaning environmentalist and social justice groups such as DNA People’s Legal Services and Columbia Riverkeeper,” the Alaska Watchman notes.
Typical.
When further pressed by the Alaska Watchman, the park refused to offer any additional comment.
The Watchman notes that despite this new odd rule, “[t]he park does, however, fly the U.S. flag from several stations inside the park, and at the visitors’ center.”
“Additionally, the National Park Service actively promotes the flying of other flags, which many would consider controversial. In fact, the official website of the National Park Service has an entire page dedicated to honoring a whole host of LGBTQ+ flags, including pictures of them on display at national parks in the Lower-48,” according to the Watchman.
The park is now facing calls for Merrell’s ouster:
If you are that ashamed of the American flag, how about you move and be proud of somebody else’s flag? Brooke Merrell needs to be fired for this.
— HippoSquat (@HippoSquat) May 26, 2024
@DenaliNPS @NationalParksX
Has this idiot, Booke Merrell, been fired yet?! What a disgrace to our fallen heroes on Memorial Day weekend!— Magaman2 (@Magaman1080p2) May 26, 2024
@DenaliNPS Firing of Brooke Merrell is the least you can do, and while you are at it, taxpayers should not be footing the bill for your LBGTQ views on your public website. Scumbags.
— Johnny4K (@Johnnyin4K) May 26, 2024
As a Veteran and previous NPS employee, this is a disgrace. Brooke Merrell has no place working for the park service.. land set aside for the use and benefit of our citizens.. @DenaliNPS should be ashamed of this behavior @_NatParkService
— Linda Panozzo (@PanozzoLin219) May 26, 2024
Tell Brooke Merrell that this is America, bitch! And we can fly the US flag wherever we want, including our park. pic.twitter.com/yLDjoEuNXz
— Thomas Musket ⓒ (@ThomasMusket) May 26, 2024
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan has penned a letter to the park expressing outrage and demanding answers.
“This is an outrage—particularly in the lead-up to our most solemn national holiday, Memorial Day, a time when Americans come together to honor those that gave their fives in service to our nation, while wearing our country’s flag,” he wrote. “The American flag, especially on Memorial Day weekend, should be celebrated, not censored by federal government employees.”
“There is no federal regulation of law that I can conceive of that would ban the flying of the American Hag on public land — particularly in a national park the principal purpose of which is the enjoyment of American citizens,” he added.
It is an outrage that on the lead-up to Memorial Day, a construction worker was prohibited from flying an American flag in a national park in Alaska. I cannot conceive of a federal law or regulation mandating this.
I’ve written the @NatlParkService and demanded a response: pic.twitter.com/ynGXU6uHi9
— Sen. Dan Sullivan (@SenDanSullivan) May 25, 2024
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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