Tap, tap tap. Scott Standfast knocked on the door again. He’d been at it for several minutes, standing in front of a one-story brick house in Niceville, Florida, on a warm, dry day in November 2015. The then-59-year-old former Marine and his wife had driven more than 11 hours to get here, hoping to answer a question that’s haunted him for 40 years. He knocked again. This time, harder. Boom, boom, boom! Still no answer.
Recently an article by the Washington Spectator’s national correspondent, Rick Perlstein, was published with the attention-grabbing headline: “It’s Time to Haul Down Another Flag of Racist Hate.” The article gained national attention when Newsweek picked it up on Aug. 11 and ignited a firestorm of resentment over its claim that the origin of the black and white POW/MIA flag is rooted in racism and hatred, rather than remembrance for the more than 80,000 men and women still waiting to come home.
