Why I want the score to read, "Col Barfoot: 1, HOA: 0"

In case you've not heard about it, Col Van Barfoot, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, has been told by his homeowners association to take down his flagpole that he uses to fly his American flag. Due to his age, the fact that he's a veteran of three wars (WWII, Korea and Vietnam), and (probably most importantly) a Medal of Honor winner, this has caused quite a stir.
I support Col Barfoot in this. First, I hate HOA's. I've read all of the comments about how they keep home prices up. But I've not heard anyone provide any evidence of that. To me, they are simply an artifice cooked up to "keep out the undesirables". Since when were we willing to sell out our liberty for some unspecified "Your house price will stay high" crap?
Second, as someone who (unfortunately) lives in an area that has an HOA, I'd ask this of all of the people who state, "He agreed to the HOA rules when he bought that house." My question is this, "How carefully did you read your covenants before you bought?" Of the two houses I've owned, both had HOAs. The covenants are legalese guacamole. They are designed by lawyers for lawyers. Did his explicitly state, "No poles in the front yard?" I'm willing to bet it didn't. I'm further willing to be he asked about the flag pole before erecting it because the covenants did not explicitly cover poles in the front yard.
Third, and to me most important, he earned the Medal of Honor. He gets a pass. Period. Considering that the majority of MoH awards are given posthumously, that takes some doing. I've had an argument with one person who blew that off by saying, "That was over 40 years ago." To which my response is that does not matter. He earned a frickin' MoH. He gets a pass. Forever. Period.
Fourth, the flagpole issue is not a violation of a law. At most, it's a violation of a contract. That means that he cannot be arrested. The police will not be coming to his house.
Finally, don't bother with all of the "what if" games. Those are the people who say, "What if he decides to paint his house purple?" or "What if he decides to put a car up on blocks in his front yard?" or "What if he decides to fly the Confederate flag instead?" He didn't. He put up a nice flag pole to fly an American flag, and he more than earned that right. End of discussion.