Practical Joke Gone WRONG

One of my Uncles shared this photo on his facebook wall. I read it and felt an immediate pang of Anger towards the township of Randolph Ohio, a place I am familiar with as a child and where I stake an argument for having the BEST county fair I have ever been to. I clicked on the link my Uncle had shared and began reading through some of the 100's of comments that had been posted underneath this post by Sarchione Ford.

After reading through the comments, I noticed something strange about the infraction notice, it states that displays of Patriotism must me OVER 15 sq ft, 3x5ft. I thought to myself, that is a strange zoning law, but I could almost get behind is because it is encouraging GREATER patriotism. This was a much different thought then when I initially read it and emotionally thought it was saying that their Flag was too large.

I don't agree with their being any zoning laws of any kind on the size or amount of American Flags that can be flown, I am of the belief that it should be flown proudly and respectfully as many places as possible. Then I came across a post from the Bruce R Wagner that signed the Infraction Notice shown above, it states that there was no infraction after all:

I believe it takes a big man to step up in the face of turmoil and ridicule, and publicly admit to your mistake and seek the forgiveness of anyone offended. I will agree that he made a poor decision in sending this as a joke, but his intentions, I believe, were not unmoral. I think his post actions of standing up quickly and admitting his mistakes and apologizing were upstanding.

What has me really fired up about this whole situation is the reaction by Sarchione Ford dealership, who I originally believed to be the victim in this event. I think if the Sarchione Ford dealership had any sort of moral background, that after realizing this "Infraction Report" was satirical in nature and having a written apology from the offender, the Sarchione Ford dealership should have removed their post and stopped spreading shaded truth's about the Township of Randolph.

Upon further review of some of the results of their posts, I feel that Sarchione Ford is utilizing this incident to bolster publicity of their dealership. In the past 2 days since posting this false report, the page likes of the Sarchione Ford dealership has increased at a rate of 4,000%, an astronomical increase in popularity. 

I feel like this Ford Dealership is playing on the patriotic strings of other people, one follower posted:

Charlie Martin II Ok. Sarchione Ford. I am PCSing to Germany. When I get back (should be a few years) I WILL BUY a f150 from you guys. That I can promise. As long as I remember!

and another posted:
Hobie Harris Guess where we are coming next month to buy a car,

I find it sad and unethical that this Dealership is utilizing the mistake of a man to gain public attention. Unfortunately, this is the same dealership that gained national publicity in the fall of 2014 by utilizing the media coverage obtained from the mistakes of another man, NFL Wide Receiver for the Cleveland Browns, Josh Gordon. For those of you unfamiliar with Josh Gordon, he was roughly a top 5 WR in the NFL, and was suspended due to some personal issues with substance abuse. This dealership gained National attention and I would wager sold some cars to Browns fans that came to their dealership solely due to the employment of Josh Gordon.

More information on this story can be found on fox8 website: http://fox8.com/2015/05/01/car-dealerships-flag-size-garners-national-attention/