For nearly two decades, I've lived in Swisshelm Park, a quiet neighborhood in the southeast corner of Pittsburgh abutting the Monongahela River and Frick Park.

Most people have no sense of where it is until I use neighboring Nine Mile Run, Regent Square and Swissvale as reference points. Even then, folks are just as likely to say: "Oh, I had no idea what that neighborhood was called. Seems like a nice enough place, though. Is it?"

Two-story brick houses and suburban-style ranch houses vie for supremacy on Swisshelm Park's racially mixed, tree-lined streets. Wild turkeys are a common sight early in the morning. At night, deer wander into some backyards to munch on garden-grown delicacies. Thanks to the high number of retired people quick to "snitch" when they see a strange face or car in the neighborhood, crime is close to nonexistent.

The names of hundreds of soldiers from the area who served in World War II, including those who died, are on display at the Sarah Jackson Black Community Center on leafy Windermere Drive.

Several blocks away at Homestead and Commercial, next to the neighborhood firehouse, sits a memorial to those who fought and died in World War I: "This tablet erected by the residents of the 5th District, 14th Ward, City of Pittsburgh," it reads. "Greater love hath no man, than to lay down his life for [his] fellow man." As far as I know, Swisshelm Park's patriotism has never been in question.

Last week, American flags sprung up on the front lawns and flower gardens around Swisshelm Park like patriotic fungi. The flags weren't planted or mounted by the homeowners, though. An eager real estate agent had swept through the neighborhood leaving the flags and her company's calling card impaled on the tips.

"God bless America," the right side of the card read. A photo of a lovely, middle-aged woman is on the card's left side with the motto "Your real estate expert in Swisshelm Park" beneath it. The card continues: "Honoring all those whose sacrifice held high the flag and lifted the cause of liberty. Let freedom ring and your flag fly! Happy 4th of July!"

As soon as I read the card, I wondered how long it would be before my friend and neighbor Dave "daj" Juliette responded. Dave is the Tom Paine of Swisshelm Park, a pamphleteer with a highly developed sense of moral outrage and a very erudite way of expressing himself. He does so daily on an understated, but well-written, local blog called One Man's Tofu. I knew he would have something to say about the flags and the real estate agent, a woman he'd jousted with once before over the same issues of property, privacy and patriotism.

We didn't have to wait long. Swisshelm Park residents found a double-sided note from "daj" under Sunday morning newspapers or front porch welcome mats. It is too long to quote in its entirety here -- it is posted at his Web site -- but these excerpts convey the flavor of what he wrote: "Those of you who have lived in the neighborhood for a while may remember five years ago when [the same agent] and myself had a disagreement about her penchant for putting things on other peoples' property without the owner's consent," daj wrote. "Just like she has done this year, in 2004, [she] merrily went up and down the streets of Swisshelm Park planting flags in everyone's yards, except in that year she did it in conjunction with Memorial Day, rather than the Fourth of July.

"I objected back then because I felt that, while I may or may not have agreed with the sentiment, I had not been given the opportunity to decide for myself whether or not I wanted to display a flag on my property. The presumptuous decision was made for me. ... This is tantamount to having someone make a political statement on my property without my consent, which, it seems to me, flies in the face of the very freedoms that the flag is supposed to represent."

"The founders built this republic on the bedrock notion that every individual's opinion, no matter how much at variance with that of the majority, is every bit as precious as that of any other, and should be protected and defended," daj wrote. "These are complicated concepts, to be sure, and I find that more often than not these days, people are no longer willing to take the time to understand them. It is much easier to simply plant a flag in one's yard and feel satisfied with that as an indication of patriotism."

I took a drive around Swisshelm Park yesterday. Most of the flags remain flying, though the realty ad is gone from all but a few of them. Dave's stirring words haunt me as I stare at the flag on my own lawn. I'm tempted to take it down out of solidarity with daj, but it is the only flag I have.