Army veteran Keith Ludwig will not let his apartment complex dictate where he can put his American flag. That resolve paid off Friday when the complex gave in after Ludwig appeared on the local news and pled his case.
“I’m a veteran, my grandfather’s a veteran, my father’s a veteran. We’re a military family,” he told Fox 8. “…We’ve all fought for our flag…I’m a veteran and my flag is not coming down.”
For two years, Ludwig had his flag hanging off his balcony. Then, out of nowhere, the management of Shoregate Towers in Willowick, Ohio told Thursday that it violated his lease that he would have to remove it immediately.
There is a clause in the lease that prohibits hanging or affixing anything to the balconies, Fox 8 reported. But Ludwig questioned why it took management more than two years to bring it up and whether that clause is really meant to apply to an American flag.
“If there was a problem before, they should have said something before,” he said. “And, I mean, why all of a sudden does it have to come down?”
He also pointed out that there were many other units in his complex that had flags visible on balconies, as well as a few satellite dishes mounted outside of units.
“If my flag has to come down, all the satellite dishes have to come down,” he declared.
The apartment complex backed down after Ludwig appeared on Fox 8. Shortly after the segment aired, they contacted him to tell him the flag could stay.
Ludwig’s story is sadly not unique.
Homeowner’s associations and apartment complexes all over the country have come into conflict over the past few months with people trying to raise the stars and stripes at their homes.
A Navy wife in Utah was forced to remove the flag she put up to remember her deployed husband. An HOA forced a 24-year Air Force veteran to take down her flag for several months before she was able to find a loophole in their rules and get it reinstated. And a military mom in Minnesota is looking at going to court for her right to fly the American flag in honor of her two sons — one a marine and the other an Army specialist — at her condo.
