N.C. employee refuses to lower flags for Helms
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By Ryan Teague Beckwith McClatchy Newspapers - Published: July 9, 2008
RALEIGH, N.C. — L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.
Eason, a 29-year veteran of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half mast Monday as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.
When a superior ordered the lab to follow the order, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours' delay, one of Eason's employees hung the flags at half mast.
The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed nine of his employees in the state Metrology Lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.
"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mails released in response to a public records request.
He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Eason said in an interview Tuesday that he did not typically lower the flag himself, but as head of the small lab he supervised the technician who did.
When the lab opened Monday morning, the flags were not put out at all, but an employee called Eason's boss, Stephen Benjamin, who worked in another building in Raleigh. Around 10:45 a.m., Benjamin told one of Eason's co-workers to put the flags at half staff.
Another of Eason's superiors later drove by the lab to make sure the flags were up properly.
In a string of e-mails with his superiors, Eason was told he could either lower the flags or retire effective immediately.
Though he's only 51, Eason chose to retire, although he pleaded several times to be allowed to stay at the lab. Eason, who had worked for the agriculture department since graduating from college, was paid $65,235 a year as the state metrology lab manager.
"I designed and built that lab," he said. "Even though technically the bricks and mortar belong to the state of North Carolina, I feel very strongly that everything that comes out of there is my responsibility."
It was not the first time Eason felt uneasy about lowering the flag.
A registered Democrat who said he frequently votes a split ticket, he said he had no problems lowering the flag for former Sen. Terry Sanford or President Ronald Reagan. But he remembers wondering whether he would be willing to lower the flag after President Richard Nixon's funeral.
He never had to make that decision, since it rained both days.
Monday was sunny. And Eason is out of a job.
(c) 2008, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.).
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