Unity message of flag-wielding runner
Courtesy of Kasi Taylor
Dheaven Kelley runs with the American flag.
Dheaven Kelley
Dheaven Kelley’s running companion isn’t like most.
The 24-year-old’s routine is anywhere from six to 10 miles around his city, Washington, with a large American flag in hand.
“I feel very strongly about energy,” Kelley said. “Whenever I’m carrying that thing, it gives me more energy than I think that I have. It’s an unexplainable connection.”
After a story about Kelley and his flag ran in a Pittsburgh newspaper over the Fourth of July weekend, Kelley has had some hate slung his way while on his runs.
“I’ve had a few people say nasty things about my carrying a flag – that I don’t deserve to carry it,” Kelley said.
Whatever those commenters insinuated with those remarks, they likely don’t know Kelley very well.
“I’m not intimidated or scared by any means to keep moving forward or get my message out to anyone,” he said.
Not only is he a proud American, he’s a Marine, and he plans to run for Washington’s City Council next year. Born and raised in Washington, Kelley joined the Marines in 2014, and is now a sergeant in the Marine Reserve station in Johnstown.
While running with the flag, his message, he said, is unity.
“With everything going on and all of the division, I believe that people will see hope,” he said. “They’ll see a sense of unification.”
It’s a message he’s wanted to spread since attending the peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Washington last month. While at the rally, he saw a man carrying the flag.
“At the end of the rally, I said, ‘Hey, I was wondering if I could carry your flag around,'” Kelley said. “I’ve always ran around town, but after that day, I saw it more as an opportunity to try to bring people together.”
In the Marines, Kelley was a guidon carrier for his unit, meaning he carried the Marine Corps flag during “the morning muster, general accountability and any kind of ceremonies,” he said. Now, he carries the flag he received at the Black Lives Matter protest “in the same fashion” as he would the guidon.
“I guess I’m used to it now, so it doesn’t seem that heavy,” Kelley said. “It’s more so like a companion, in a way.”
Kelley said he’s not a conventional thinker and uses the flag to express himself.
“Whenever I first began doing this, I was doing it out of want – for people to see what I was doing and to have that message resonate,” he said.
Shortly after, people started recording his running through the city and posting videos and pictures of him and his flag to social media. People were commenting very positive messages for Kelley and thanking him for running with the flag.
“Small stuff like that just solidifies for me that I’m having a positive impact on people,” he said. “There’s been way more positivity that’s come out of it.”
His runs take him many places throughout the city, he said. On these runs, he’s noticed a “disconnect.”
“I believe just by the way the city looks itself, you can tell there’s a sense of division,” he said. “Not only could some parts be racially, but within the city’s leadership there’s a big disconnect. I’ve lived in Washington my whole life, and I never knew who were on City Council or who the mayor is. It just seemed like leadership never cared about us because we never saw them around.”
Kelley admitted that in his younger years he wanted to leave Washington, thinking there wasn’t much opportunity here. Now, he hears that narrative from other people, too.
“I’m running one day and looking around and thinking, ‘Wow, what is Washington really becoming?'” he said. “There’s rundown buildings and businesses and a lot of struggle.”
That’s why he decided to make a run for City Council next year, as two seats will be up for grabs, Joe Manning’s and Matthew Staniszewski’s.
“I hear a lot of people asking for change, but they’re not really seeing it,” Kelley said. “I’m a man of action, so that’s what I want to do.”
Kelley said he wants to explore more housing opportunities for the city along with more “facilities or programs for children.”
“I’ve met a lot of great people who are already active in the community,” he said. “There’s so many ideas. Washington has so much potential – we just have to get there first.”