Lee Greenwood performs Sunday at Pat O'Brien Chevrolet. (Wst Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Crowds cheer Lee Greenwood, Old Glory
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published June 20, 2007

Several thousand people converged at Pat O’Brien Chevrolet’s Detroit Road dealership Sunday to listen to country music star Lee Greenwood sing. The crowds also witnessed a large American flag rise on a flagpole in the rear of the dealership grounds.

What’s so big about a flag being raised?

The size of the flagpole has been at the center of a controversy between the dealership and City Hall. Such structures are limited to 35 feet in height, city officials said. Earlier this year, the city’s zoning appeals board rejected Pat O’Brien’s application for a variance to put up an 80-foot flagpole, saying he had not shown a hardship.

The dealership then took out full-page ads in local newspapers and had customers sign petitions protesting the decision.

Westlake City Council drafted legislation that would amend the existing height restrictions, but the ordinances have not yet been passed.

Pat O’Brien Sr. acknowledged that the dispute with the city was not over. He said the city had said it was going to amend the flagpole height restriction.

“It’s taking longer than we thought,” he told West Life. “And I’m sure everything will work out great with (the city). I hope so.

“Everyone’s just thanking us like crazy for putting it up,” Pat O’Brien Sr. said.

But Pat O’Brien Jr., who works at the Westlake dealership, one of three the family operates, did not focus on the dispute with the city.

“Today isn’t about the controversy with the city,” he said. “We’re just having a celebration for the dedication of our flag. We’re just having a really nice community event to thank everybody who signed the petitions.”

Area veterans of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division hoist the flag.

O’Brien Jr. told Westlake that the flag, which was raised by area veterans of the 82nd Airborne, was 20 by 30 feet. The flagpole, he said, was about 70 feet tall.

Neither Pat O’Brien Jr. or Sr. spoke to the crowd. But Ray Somich, a radio personality and general manager at WELW Radio in Willoughby who served as emcee, said the flag represented to the O’Brien family the ideal of the community pulling together as one.

 “The flag that has been raised today...is a symbol of everything that is important, everything that is good about this great country,” Somich told the crowd before the concert began. “It’s more than just a piece of cloth, a very large piece of cloth. It symbolizes what, I think, all of us believe deep down inside. It’s what all of us feel. It’s what all of us hope for. It’s for all of those good things about living in America that we can rally around and be proud of.”

Somich, who described himself as a longtime friend of Pat O’Brien Sr., also reiterated a message that has been used repeatedly in the dealership’s advertising — “Buy American.” Buying American is a way for the community to pull together and support businesses and local workers, Somich said.

Greenwood took the stage to loud cheers. Later he voiced his support for Pat O’Brien’s product line, recalling that he drove from his home in California to Nashville in 1979 in a Chevy truck.

Greenwood also added his two cents on the flagpole controversy.

“Nothing makes me prouder than to see a huge American flag flying like that,” he said.

The country star said he had been given “a dossier” on the dealership’s dispute with the city and thanked everyone for standing up for the dealership.

“I think you all ought to take up a collection,” Greenwood told the crowd. “If there’s a fee (fine) for that, you all ought to pay for it. Don’t let the dealership have to pay for that. ’Cause we’re proud Americans. We need to have the flag flown like that.”

Greenwood also asked the crowd to support the USO. The singer spoke of a recent USO sponsored tour in Iraq where he visited injured U.S. troops.

“It was just tear jerking,” Greenwood said. “It was hurting me so much to see these soldiers who are putting their lives on the line and sacrificing for us.”

Greenwood then jokingly introduced the song he said all the soldiers wanted to hear him sing, the song that made him famous. Not “God Bless the U.S.A.” (which he later closed the concert with), but a McDonald’s commercial jingle from early in his career. He had many in the crowd going for a while.

Those in attendance that West Life spoke to said they came both to see Greenwood and support the dealership in the flagpole controversy.

“My question is, ‘Where is the mayor?’” asked Fairview Park resident John Flynn. “If they’re going to have any kind of a discussion, it should be over billboards and anything else, but not the American flag.”

“I think it was wonderful of everyone who participated, because that flag represents all of our freedom,” said his wife, Kitty. She added that Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” was played constantly when her husband served in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm.

Some questioned why the city opposed the flying of an American flag.

“I think it was a waste of time for the city to stop someone from putting up a flag,” said Jim Wagner of Brook Park, who attended the concert with his wife, Sandy.

Jim Willard of Cleveland, an Army veteran, described the hour-and-20-minute concert as great.

“It is good to see patriotic Americans together,” said Willard, who noted that his grandfather’s first cousin, Archibald Willard, painted the famous “Spirit of ’76” image. “All we hear is the negative all the time. And it’s good to see the positive side.

“It was really nice of them to put this on, and it was a great honor to be here,” he said.

Willard and his wife, Georgia, who were seeing Greenwood perform for the first time in person, said they have been fans of his since 9-11.