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Upside-down flags a mystery By Amber Fossen Ashland Daily Tidings For a few early morning hours on the Fourth of July, the city of Ashland sent out a distress signal. An inverted American flag, along with an inverted Tree City flag, hung high above the plaza Friday morning as parade-watchers gathered in celebration of America's hard won independence. The upside-down flag display - which signals distress - created a ripple of interest before its immediate correction, according to locals on scene. Ashland residents Graham and Bunny Lewis were on the Plaza before 9 a.m., when the incorrectly displayed flag was discovered. "Everyone seemed to notice the flag about the same time," Graham Lewis said. "It got to be an epidemic of looking at the inverted flag." The Ashland Police Department contacted Ashland Fire and Rescue crews at 8:26 a.m. after locals were unable to lower and correct the flag, according to AFR Captain Scott Hollingsworth. "They (individual(s) involved) tied the halyard around the pole about 20 feet off the ground so that no one could get to the rope," Hollingsworth said. "I think that this was probably some kind of malicious act. I don't think there was anyone distressed in the plaza." Whether a prank or a subtle protest, Plaza-goers were happy to have the flag corrected. "When they got the flag turned around there were huge applause and cheers. Everyone was watching the flag get changed," Bunny Lewis said. APD Sergeant Kirk Cromwell said there are currently no suspects and no leads. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -