Look, up in the sky! It’s an American flag over Denali!

By
Suzanne Downing
-
32
American flag flies in font of the Eielson Visitor Center in Denali National Park. Photo credit: National Park Service

Alaskans in the Denali Borough on Sunday might not only see convoys of trucks and cars with American flags flying, they may even catch glimpse of a plane towing an American flag over Denali National Park.

Matthew McKenna, of the McKenna Bros. company in Alaska, put out an inquiry to find someone who will tow that flag from a plane on Sunday, to send a message to Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell that she cannot limit the political speech of Americans. As of this writing, it’s unclear if he’s found a pilot and plane.

Last week, Denali National Park Superintendent Merrell reportedly told workers building the bridge at the Pretty Rocks Landslide that they must remove the American flag that was mounted on one of their vehicles.

The incident led to a letter from Sen. Dan Sullivan to the director of the National Park Service, Charles Sams, demanding an explanation about what many perceive as an infringement of Americans’ constitutional right to political speech.

On Sunday, a convoy of trucks and cars are heading to the park entrance with flags, with Alaskans road-tripping to the park in order to send a message to the National Park Service that America’s flag is not offensive on federal property.

Ironically, there is a large American flag that flies at the Eielson Visitor Center inside the park, as seen above, although it cannot be reached at the present time because the road is blocked by the landslide.

On blast: Sen. Sullivan takes Park Service to task for banning American flags on construction trucks in Denali National Park
Alaskans with trucks, cars, and flags flying high are organizing a convoy to Denali National Park entrance

32 COMMENTS

  1. Oddly (not odd, not really) there is zero MSM coverage of the Park Superintendent’s actions. Not KTUU, Webcenter, ADN, nobody.

    Folks, get the word out about Sunday.

  2. A single flag that unifies is a threat to every effort to divide us into a thousand different races, classes and tribes.

    Divide and conquer; one of the oldest tricks in the book.

    • Black, Brown, Native, White, Hispanic it doesn’t matter
      WE ARE AMERICANS
      MAY OUR FLAG WAVE ON HIGH

      • Unfortunately, there are organizations that are striving to destroy that national identity. And, they are making headway.

    • McKenna has had our snow removal contract here in Chugiak for years. They do outstanding work, even deberming us after big dumps. More recently they do some limited road maintenance, again, excellent work. it is always easier getting to the highway than driving on the highway, then always better on the highway, it falls apart at Muldoon.

  5. National Park Superintendent Merrel violates first amendment rights and should be fired.
    I hope there are so many people with American flags at the Park it will make national news.

  7. Now that American communists have been caught and exposed, watch them wrap themselves in the American flag for the cameras. Hollywood and the major Left-wing media paint them as purists and patriotic Americans.

    Trump 2024!!! The REAL deal.

  9. When was that photo taken? Probably 35 years ago. Long before DEI, CRT, RCV, BLM, and all the other BFDs.

  10. Would she have been OK with the Alphabet gang flag? Or the one the Gaza mutants wave?

  11. We reside in the United States 🇺🇸 which means that American flag 🇺🇸 belongs to its people 🇺🇸 WE FLY OUR FLAG OPENLY WITHOUT SHAME and if there are visitors that are offended by it…LEAVE🇺🇸🇺🇸 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  13. The left would love nothing more than to have things turn ugly and get violent. They may be assembling some Antifa, Anarchists to wreak havoc but they would be few in number.

  14. I am currently in the Park working in Polychome pass. Am I happy about someone being told not to fly a flag? Not really.
    But has anyone actually confirmed the reasons behind it? That there is actually political motivation on these part of an individual park employee? I see calls for an NPS employee to be fired, to be jailed, political affiliation assumed, etc.

    Who has actually confirmed any of this prior to attacking this individual?

    Is she applying activist policies? Is she using her position to push radical viewpoints? She didn’t strike me as that type of person.

    Let’s hit the facts of the situation before displaying the same behavior that we despise when we see it in those we disagree with.

    • Dylan, the “reason behind it” is immaterial.
      If (and you do not deny it to be true) these construction vehicles were singled out and operators told to remove the flag, while they travel the park road, the reason does not matter. Even the request is unacceptable. This is an American flag flown in an American national park. To demand that they strike it, simply does not compute.
      There should be consequences for the individual, who decided to abuse their authority in this manner.

    • Thank you for showing what a rational reply looks like. Has anyone took the time to understand the employee handbook here folks. Pretty simple logic herefolks.

    • I really liked this part of your comment: “displaying the same behavior that we despise when we see it in those we disagree with.” I asked some of the same questions as you and I had everybody and his brother jump on my case about it. I am uber conservative and patriotic (my dad was in all 5 campaigns in Europe in WWII) and I love our flag. I just suggested we wait until the dust settles and get a little more information. I believe, for example, that most of the Jan. 6th people were entirely innocent but I wouldn’t put it past a few of them to be obnoxious after seeing how easy it is to get people riled up. I hope nobody does anything stupid up at Denali. Our conservative side does not need any bad publicity.

    • I’ll meet you 1/3 of the way.

      I’m in agreement she should be removed from her post? Why? Sheer bad optics and decision making. As top dog, she ultimately is responsible for all things occurring there.

      Equally, it’s a long standing tradition to fly the flag at construction sites.

      More, it’s federal land on Memorial Day, where we honor those who died in service to this nation.

      A competent leader does not step on this many rakes, makes this level of questionable decisions regarding a clearly avoidable situation.

      Most of all, this is a clear violation of 1st Amendment rights in a very public way. This is (at present) a classic case of an officer of the state imposing speech restrictions on a citizen.

      Someone who runs a major park like Denali must be smarter. She has shown she isn’t

  16. SO glad folks got on top of this stupidity right away: Love the McKennas! Since when is it political speech to fly the flag of your country inside a national park????

  17. Suzanne
    Are there any regulations to support this decision. Surely there can’t be a law disallowing flag display.

  19. All the construction people have to do is set there American flags on fire.
    Problem solved.
    Free speech.

Comments are closed.