0:03

So today I want to talk

0:05

about a flag that

0:08

I sent across the country back

0:10

in twenty and fifteen. That's

0:13

when the flag was actually

0:15

sent across the country to Charleston,

0:17

South Carolina. But the story

0:20

really started back in twenty

0:22

and eleven, and that was

0:24

in January of two thousand. January

0:28

eighth of twenty eleven, when

0:30

here in Tucson, it was a Saturday,

0:32

we had a mass

0:35

shooting at a local

0:37

grocery store here and a

0:39

representative of the House of Representatives, Gabby

0:42

Giffords, was.

0:44

Shot in the head.

0:45

There were six people killed as

0:48

well as a nine year old young

0:50

girl they name of Christina Taylor

0:53

Green. You know, the

0:55

Safe Way, the location where took place is

0:57

very close to where I live, and

1:00

I had been at that safe Way and visited

1:03

on numerous occasions, so.

1:04

I was really familiar with the area

1:06

where it took place. And

1:09

it hit hard.

1:10

You know, you think of mass

1:13

shootings or casualty shootings throughout the country

1:15

and you can kind of distance

1:17

yourself or you know, because you haven't been

1:20

there, don't You don't

1:22

know what it's like. You just read about it and you move

1:24

on. But in this particular case, you

1:26

know, I had been into this location. I was familiar

1:29

with it, so it struck

1:31

a chord with me, you know. And Gabby

1:34

Giffords was loved

1:36

by many here in the States, especially Tucson.

1:38

She survived, but there

1:41

were some news.

1:42

Reports that came out that she

1:44

had been murdered, that she was dead. It

1:47

wasn't until probably about a month later, maybe

1:50

maybe two to three weeks a month later, that they

1:52

finally came out and said she's alive,

1:55

but you know, she's severely disabled.

1:59

Tragic, tragic event, first time

2:01

anything on that level had happened.

2:04

You know.

2:04

We had a white male,

2:06

twenty two years old, mental health problems,

2:10

who fired thirty two rounds into a crowd,

2:12

just randomly, but he was

2:14

particularly trying to assassinate Gabby

2:16

Giffords. It was just hard to wrap

2:18

your head around. It was tough time for

2:20

a long time for many

2:22

of us here in Tucson. So

2:25

that's where it started. And

2:28

I didn't note at the time until

2:31

June seventeenth of twenty

2:33

and fifteen. At this point

2:36

in my career, i'd been a top for fourteen

2:38

years and I had

2:40

just had the one year anniversary

2:42

of flags for the flagless right June

2:45

fourteenth of twenty fourteen.

2:47

My first flag went up.

2:49

Here in Tucson, and

2:51

now here it is June seventeenth, twenty

2:54

fifteen. One year later, we

2:56

have a twenty one year old white male

2:58

who went into a house

3:01

of worship in Charleston, South Carolina,

3:04

and he killed nine people

3:07

after he had sat with them during a Bible study.

3:11

And at the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting

3:13

at a place of worship in the world.

3:16

And that was that emmanual African Methodist

3:19

Episcopal Church. They

3:21

shortened it down to the Ame Church

3:24

is what that is called. And

3:27

if you recall, I mean the nation was

3:30

the whole nation was torn up over that, right, we had

3:33

a young white male, again very similar Touson

3:35

go in mental health issues

3:37

and just started randomly.

3:40

Shooting and killing people. So a

3:42

couple of days later, as I was driving home

3:44

from work one night, you know,

3:47

it was all over the radio.

3:48

Everybody was talking about what had happened in Charleston,

3:50

and I wanted to do something.

3:53

You know, it was a terrible thing. And I reflected

3:56

back on twenty eleven and how Tucson

3:58

felt and what we had gone through through with the shooting

4:00

of Gabby Gifford's and

4:03

here Charleston, in my mind,

4:05

was suffering, you

4:07

know, from a similar incident. It

4:09

was tough, tough for them, tough for us, and

4:13

just the.

4:13

Way I am.

4:13

I wanted to help somehow, and I didn't know how,

4:17

but because the only

4:19

thing I had to give that

4:21

I could show, you know, thanks or the

4:23

support, was an American

4:25

flag. When

4:29

I got home that night, I

4:32

didn't know anything about the Ame

4:34

Church, didn't know how popular,

4:36

how many locations, And I just

4:38

went online and I looked up, you know, local

4:41

Ame churches, and the

4:43

only one in southern Arizona was

4:46

right here in Tucson.

4:47

Couldn't believe it.

4:49

So the next day I get up, go to work, and while I'm

4:51

on patrol, I stopped at that Ame

4:53

church, much like I did with the

4:55

very first flag, with the intent of not

4:59

looking to talk to anyone in particular, but

5:01

just to give an idea of what

5:04

I wanted to do, how I wanted to help. Could

5:06

they help me? Could they make this happen?

5:09

And when I walked in the office, there was a young

5:12

a young girl sitting behind the desk. She

5:14

introduced herself as Viv. Viv

5:17

was her name, VIVI a big smile, young girl,

5:19

eager to help. And

5:22

I told her what I had started with my

5:24

foundation a year ago, and you

5:27

know, I would like to donate a flag or somehow

5:29

get a flag to your sister

5:31

church in Charleston.

5:33

She said, well, that's.

5:34

Really not for me to make

5:36

that decision, right, We'll have to talk

5:39

to some some local people

5:41

here in the church and see what we can do. So

5:44

she said, someone be in touch with you, okay.

5:47

So I went back to work, went back to patrol, and

5:50

a day or two later, I got a phone

5:52

call from a woman who introduced herself

5:54

as Joanne Thompson. Joanne

5:57

Thompson was a steward of the local Ame

6:00

church and she

6:03

agreed to meet with me. She said, sure, let's

6:05

meet and let me hear what you have to say.

6:07

And you know what your

6:09

proposal is, to send a flag to Charleston.

6:13

So we met and I explained to her, you

6:16

know what my thought was. You know how

6:18

torn up Tucson was, how

6:20

upset we were, how devastated we were with

6:23

the shooting in twenty eleven. I

6:25

saw a lot of similarities in Charleston

6:28

with the shooting there, and

6:31

I wanted to let them know that Tucson

6:34

supported them. Tucson had been through a similar

6:37

situation and I want

6:39

to show support somehow, and my thought

6:41

was to get a flag back to

6:44

Charleston somehow. So

6:46

she said, well, I'm

6:49

going to have to run this up my organization,

6:52

my leadership, and see

6:55

what they say, right, she said, I have talked to the local

6:57

leadership, who will then have talked

6:59

to the state leadership, who

7:01

will then have to talk to the leadership out

7:03

of South Carolina.

7:06

You know, make sure everyone's on board with this, she

7:09

said, you know, if it's if

7:11

it's a go, It

7:13

just so happens that I'll be going back to Charleston

7:16

in two weeks for a conference.

7:18

That was already slated to schedule.

7:20

It was supposed to take place at the church, but

7:23

because of the tragedy that took place there, we're gonna

7:27

hold the conference on an off site location.

7:29

But you know, if my

7:31

bosses or the organization says it's a go, I

7:33

could take the flag.

7:34

Back with me to

7:36

Charleston.

7:38

She's like, let me find out, you know, let

7:40

me run this by my superiors and I'll

7:42

let you know. I said, perfect, because

7:45

that'll give me time to get

7:47

the flag, get a shadow box.

7:50

You know, it's a flag and a case maybe a

7:52

walnut wood frame, got a glass

7:54

front on it, secure in the back.

7:55

I want to get the flag in a.

7:57

Nice shadow box that shouldn't go

7:59

to Charleston, that it's presented and ready for him.

8:09

Sure enough, a couple of days later, Joanne

8:12

got back to me and said, Yep,

8:15

it's a go. The organizations crossed,

8:17

you know, between Tucson and Charleston.

8:19

Said yes, it's a go, and

8:22

I'll be going back here next week. So just

8:25

get me the flag and I'll take it. I said, okay.

8:27

So I got the flag, put it in the shadow

8:30

box, and I wanted to put an

8:32

inscription. I wanted to put something on

8:35

the front of that glass,

8:37

on the front of that flag shadow box, to

8:40

let the folks know in Charleston you

8:42

know who it was from, where it came from,

8:46

and the connection between

8:48

Tucson.

8:48

And Charleston, and that they're supported.

8:50

So on the front of the glass

8:52

I had inscripted given

8:55

to A. M. E. Church, Charleston,

8:57

South Carolina, and it said

8:59

August twenty fifteen from Flags

9:02

for the Flag List, Tucson, Arizona. And

9:05

then on the bottom. In a different font.

9:07

On the bottom of the glass, I

9:10

had written cities joined

9:12

by tragedy, our future,

9:15

joined by hope and love.

9:18

Charleston, we stand with you.

9:26

So I took that flag

9:28

and I met with joe Anne at her

9:30

church and I presented to her. There was a one

9:33

news station was present. A local

9:35

newspaper reporter was also there, just

9:38

to kind of record.

9:39

It, and I left.

9:40

I wished her safe travels, gave her the flag, and

9:44

went on my way. And it's

9:47

funny even now, I still think about

9:49

what the thoughts that I had were when

9:51

I was leaving. You know, I'm like, how

9:54

is she going to get this big, bulky,

9:56

triangle sized box through TSA

9:59

are they and give her a

10:01

hard time? How is she going to put

10:03

it under her seat? How is she going to

10:06

put it in the over it? Just I'm

10:09

a detailed guy, right, and that's just my

10:11

background what I've been doing for so long,

10:13

So just little details like that.

10:16

I was like, this.

10:16

Poor woman is going to be struggling

10:19

and she's going to have to carry it through and

10:21

then she has a layover blow. And

10:23

I had that thought for the last

10:26

nine years until I met with Joanne

10:29

recently, and I asked

10:32

her, you know, I said, you know, I never asked

10:34

you how did it go? How to go

10:36

going through security? Did you have to put

10:38

it on the belt and get X rayed and

10:41

all that stuff? And she

10:43

says she looked at me and she said, Charlie,

10:46

I never took a plane.

10:48

I took the Greyhound bus. I

10:51

took the bus from Tucson to

10:54

Kansas City, and then I

10:56

went from Kansas City to Charleston.

10:59

And I kept that flag on my lap

11:03

the entire time. I

11:05

was like, I couldn't believe it. Right

11:07

here, I was so naive to

11:10

think, Oh, everyone everyone takes

11:13

a plane, right, everyone just canna get on a plane

11:15

and travel cross country.

11:17

Johanne had to raise money.

11:19

She had to find some sponsors to donate

11:22

money so that she could even attend

11:24

this conference. She raises the

11:26

money and she gets

11:28

on a Greyhound bus and she travels across

11:31

the country with this flag on her

11:33

lap. And she

11:35

says, you know, I remember now, this

11:37

is Joanne telling me. There was a

11:40

gentleman who got on the bus

11:42

in Kansas City and he sat next to me, and

11:44

he introduced himself and he said he was a

11:47

vet and yeah. He said, so you

11:49

know, what's the deal with the flag?

11:51

What is it?

11:51

And she told him the

11:53

story, right, it's coming from two songs going

11:55

to be delivered to Charleston, and

11:58

that it was you know, a local

12:00

law enforcement officer started this project

12:02

and goes on and she

12:05

says that he said, I'm thankful

12:07

that there are people like this in this country that do

12:09

things like that, she said. She says, I'll never forget

12:11

that. Joanne said that she got

12:15

Charleston and she presented

12:18

this flag up on stage

12:20

in front of two hundred other

12:22

members of the AME conference

12:26

and she explained to them the idea

12:29

behind it, how it got there,

12:31

the tragedy that Tucson had gone

12:34

through, that we want

12:36

to show support for Charleston, And she

12:38

says, after she was done explaining the story presenting

12:41

it to the organization, she said that pretty

12:43

much everybody in the crowd was crying.

12:47

You know that other

12:49

people had suffered the same fate and

12:52

we were thinking of them, right, So

12:54

it was a pretty emotional moment. The

12:57

next year, her

13:01

took a trip to Charleston with her family,

13:04

and my sister

13:06

knew that I had donated a flag to the AME

13:09

Church in Charleston, and she wanted to go by and

13:13

see if she could see it, see it where

13:15

they had placed it. And she

13:17

told me that she when she went to the church

13:20

that it was still so recent

13:24

after the shooting that they weren't they were

13:27

not letting the general public into the

13:29

church.

13:29

It was still closed off.

13:31

She explained who she was, she explained who

13:33

her brother was, She explained her

13:36

connection to the American flag, which should

13:38

be inside the church. So wherever

13:40

she talked to said, well, come on in. We'll

13:43

put you here in this office and someone

13:45

will be with you. In a few minutes, they'll come

13:47

back and talk to you. And my sister said,

13:49

about ten minutes later, so

13:52

a couple of people walked in and they were carrying

13:55

this flag that I had sent

13:57

back to Charleston.

13:58

That it made it that it was there and

14:00

that it completed its journey.

14:01

And you

14:03

know, I've never been to

14:06

Charleston, I've never been to South

14:09

Carolina, and I hope someday that I

14:11

can go back and see this flag.

14:13

And I

14:16

think, you know, when I get to the

14:18

Amy Church there and I see the

14:20

flag, I think in my head, like I usually

14:23

do, is I'll have some sort of short

14:26

conversation with this flag,

14:28

you know, and I'll tell

14:30

her I know that her her trip was

14:33

long, it wasn't easy, but

14:36

that she made it home where

14:39

she was needed, and that

14:42

she'll remain here and she'll be seen

14:44

by so many and loved by so many,

14:46

that her new home will

14:49

be her final resting place.

14:51

So that's the story

14:53

of a flag that made it.

14:54

From Tucson, Arizona,

14:56

to Charleston, South Carolina by

14:58

a bus held on the

15:01

lap of a woman.

15:02

Who is so proud and happy to be a part of it.

15:04

That it's

15:07

just, you know, one of many stories, but

15:10

very impactful for me and certainly

15:12

for I hope the people of Charleston.

15:19

Thank you for joining us on this episode

15:21

of Flags for the Flagless. This

15:23

episode was produced by Charlie Foley, Doug

15:26

Levy, and Jason Wykel. To

15:28

listen to Charlie's newest episodes, please

15:30

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15:37

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15:40

for the Flagless United Stories of America

15:43

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