Sometimes people do things that bring their family, friends, university and country to shame.

Nothing could fit the pre-described situation better than the people who stole some of the American flags that were placed around Charleston to honor those who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

I have talked before about an Eastern professor exploiting student fears after the attacks; about pop stars who promote sin and then thank God when its cool and the selling out of the hypocritical 60s generation.

But stealing American flags that are displayed proudly to honor the over 5,000 people killed in this country’s worst disaster is the only one of those issues that literally makes me sick to write about.

Just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post erected 200 American flags along Lincoln Avenue and the city’s historic Square. Twenty seven of those flags were stolen in the weeks that followed, as the nation mourned and remained apprehensive of further seemingly random acts of terrorism.

Four Eastern students and one Eastern graduate were charged in the theft of at least one of those flags. I do not wish to direct this column to those individuals.

They have already paid their penance both in fines and public humiliation.

However, that leaves plenty of other flags that were stolen and not returned. There are others out there who have not paid their much over due penance.

Lets face it, we as students come to Charleston to let loose, experience the full force of our fleeting youth and make mistakes. Often times, to put it mildly, those personal ambitions of ours conflict with those of Charleston residents.

Beer bottles get broken where children ride bikes, working parents are kept up late by house parties and lawn ornaments mysteriously disappear in the wee hours of the morning.

All those occurrences are unacceptable, but stealing those American flags has brought a new level of shame to Eastern students.

Those who stole the flags probably still have them hanging in their homes, dorm rooms or arrogantly waving on their front porches. Maybe they have enough shame to hide them in a dark closet or enough evil to have burned them.

Everyone makes mistakes. Strangely it may not be too late to redeem the situation. I implore those individuals who stole the flags to show a last minute glimmer of courage, the kind that can rekindle the fading light of trust.

Return those flags. Tape a tiny note to them that quietly screams “I’m sorry.” You can secretly drop them of at the VFW post or court house early in the morning.

If that sounds too risky, then leave them at the back door of the Buzzard Building under the cover of darkness.

If you don’t do it to heal your own shame, do it to heal everyone elses’. I don’t want Eastern to be known as having students that could be so deficient in morality that they would steal an American flag after the tragedy we have all experienced.

Unfortunately, we do have those types of students here. Now the least we could do is show everybody that Eastern students have the moral character to recognize and attempt to mend the damage they have caused.

n Joseph Ryan is a senior journalism major and a biweekly columnist for The Daily Eastern News. His e-mail address is [email protected]. Columns are the opinion of the author.