I’ve always been a patriotic sort.

Despite my liberal political leanings on some issues, I always thought patriotism should be something that unites us all

Perhaps my patriotic feelings are because as a child growing up in Montana I remember my immigrant mother telling complaining friends, and even a local newspaper, that she was proud to pay taxes to  be able to live in a country where you could vote and have freedoms to say and do what you want.

My late father-in-law once told me that my mother told him this, and it brought tears to his eyes.

And as a veteran, I especially like to once in a while look up at the American flag outside the clubhouse of our senior apartment complex Whispering Waters owned by the City of Rancho Mirage, Calif., and located a block off a busy street and shopping area. With the flag, the trees and the fountain waterfall out front it feels like a peaceful oasis.

I was a mere enlisted man in the Army Reserves with limited active duty but proud of my six years served back in the 1960s and 1970s, despite with my disagreement with the war at the time in Vietnam. Most of us did our duty despite out private feelings. Various wars of the years involving America haven’t altered my sense of patriotism. We Americans work out our differences in the polling booths, I like to think.

In the apartments for low-income seniors where I now live, we have had our share of management and maintenance issues due to tight city budgets in these poor economic times the past few years. But for me the flag flying high atop a tall flagpole was at least one source of pride.

On Flag Day June 14 I was shocked and disappointed to see Old Glory there in tatters, like it had been in a battle.

The flag had three large holes in it, two near the bottom and one near the top, plus a long rip about a foot long near the top. And the flag was generally well worn out. With the tears and holes, it obviously had been like that for a while.

I can see this happening once, but this was the third time in three years this has happened. So I fired off an email about my outrage to the Rancho Mirage city council members and various officials of the city and the apartment management company. I was appalled the flag hadn’t been replaced before it got this bad, and said so.

The City Council members here in mostly Republican Rancho Mirage talk a good conservative line. But I had to conclude that apparently either none of them had respect for the flag or at the least they just didn't give it a second thought, as I have had to report the flag wearing out here once a year now for three years.

There are federal laws governing the flying of the American flag and its condition, including that flags flown all night like this one must be all-weather flags that shouldn’t wear out so quickly.

If this desert city of so many well-off people and fancy businesses catering to the rich and tourists is so thin on its budget that it can’t afford to replace a torn, worn and ripped American flag, it can always get a free one that has flown over the U.S. Capitol from our Republican Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack of Palm Springs, and I suggested that. I copied her office in my email to the city officials and apartment management.

Someone must have cared, or at least wanted to avoid embarrassment, because shortly after my complaint the flag was replaced that night. No waiting for the morning as in past instances.

A brand-spanking new Old Glory flew proudly and smartly in the night with a spotlight shining on it shortly before the end of Flag Day.

I was born in Europe myself, like my late parents. Another immigrant friend told me that he, like me, also has a love for our adopting and adopted country America and its important symbols that too many seem to take for granted.

With the Fourth of July coming soon, hopefully most Americans can take a moment from the barbecues and recreation to consider what American independence was all about and why we have patriotic symbols like the flag and what they mean.

Despite our political divisions, we can look beyond that to the love of our country and its history of freedom and democracy and, although we don‘t always get it correct, America’s sometimes bumpy attempts over the past 236 years to try to do the right thing.

 (Les Gapay is a retired newspaper reporter and freelance writer in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He has worked for various newspapers, including the Daily Inter Lake. )