Red Scare in Iowa

In a bit of nostalgia, reader ranamacar sent me a short article from the Des Moines Register, June 11, 1950: "'Communist' Flags to Fly Over Hartley". The email contained the scanned article and these comments

Mom found this clipping from 60 years ago- seems the "Red Scare" even found its way to Iowa. Wonder if we could get away with something like this in today's PC world.

I wonder as well.

Hartley was apparently going to be taken over in a mock commie takeover will town officials being locked up (I like that idea) along with local citizens. In the end, all is good as the town celebrated Flag Day. That's right, the town celebrated one of the lesser holidays. Ending the day with burning of the communist flags by the local Scouts.

Ranamacar is right to question whether we would be charged with hate speech for burning a commie flag in today's society. The US flag is okay to burn, but look out if you burn one with a hammer and sickle in the corner (especially in Iowa City).

I like the fact that the town had a dance at the end of the day. This was in the 50's by the way.