Bakersfield.com

It is with great sadness that I report to such a wonderful city, in which I am truly proud to call my new home, that some of its communities don't welcome new residents the way the city has captured my family's heart.

This Saturday my family geared up for the weekend ritual of college football, as we have since we started our family in 1998. I have an Oklahoma University flag that has been flying every college football season that I can remember and on October 18, 2008 someone came onto our property in the Madison Grove community and stole the flag. While it didn't have much monetary value, it was near and dear to our hearts and greatly disturbed my wife and kids as up to that point we felt safe in our community.

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come in Bakersfield, because we lived in Bellflower, CA for several years and never had an issue as the flag flew year round. Even after USC killed us in the 2005 national title game the fans let the flag be. One week in this small community and the flag is gone.