News reports on MSNBC and Fox News. An on-screen interview on CNN. Front page of the USA Today website. Baldwin County Commission Chairman Tucker Dorsey has been on screens throughout the country this last week, all over his stance on lowering the American flag following a national tragedy.

In a post on his Facebook page last week, Dorsey explained why he was not ordering the county’s flags to be flown at half mast following the attack in Orlando last week.

“The Chairman of the Baldwin County Commission has the privilege of setting the flags at half-staff, and I, serving as chairman, have deliberately chosen not to lower our flags,” Dorsey wrote. “First and foremost, my soul aches for the families of the innocents killed, and my family prays for them and the world. Evil exists in the world, and it seems to be expanding at a rapid rate. It is evil, not guns, killing innocents, but that is a different essay.”

Dorsey went on to say that based on what he believed the U.S. Flag Code said, the shooting, while tragic, was not a valid circumstance that warranted lowering the flag.

“Lowering the flags to half-staff after mass shooting or terrorist event is not a valid circumstance or memorial as specified in the U.S. flag code (usflag.org), Section 175, paragraph (m),” Dorsey wrote. “I realize that the President and Governor may make the order, but I believe and interpret their order inconsistent with the adopted flag code.”

Dorsey said the decision not to lower the flags was in keeping with already established policies from his previous terms as commission chairman, as the flags were also not lowered for the terror attacks in San Bernadino or Paris either.

Despite the precedent, Dorsey said he did not expect the public reaction to this decision that flooded in over the next few days.

“In the past, we’ve gotten some sort of response of around 100 to 200 likes on Facebook, maybe between 40 and 80 comments saying ‘We get it, we’re with you,’” Dorsey said. “It’s not a commentary about the victims or the communities that are affected by tragedy because I feel like we’re all affected by it as Americans. I think terrorism on our soil is an American problem and it’s not restricted to just one group of people or one community exclusively.”

Dorsey said he received over 1,000 emails and hundreds of phone calls and said many of them were people wishing “all kinds of ill will” on him and his family.

“The emotional side of it — the pain that we feel, the mourning, the hurt that the Orlando community is going through, the victims’ families and friends — while it was not my intention, I’m sorry that what I did took away from the mourning and the tragedy of the event itself and probably was interpreted as being disrespectful to Orlando and the LGBT community,” Dorsey said. “It was absolutely not my intention.”

Dorsey stands by his interpretation of the flag code, however, and said he would still make the same decision if another terror event happened in the future.

“It’s an American issue,” Dorsey said. “When we can not freely live our lives — going to school, going to church, going to hang out at a bar with our friends — without the fear of terrorists attacking us, we have an American problem where our freedoms are being infringed upon. We have gotten to the point now where we aren’t standing up to the fight against ISIS and radical Islamic terrorists that are meaning us ill will, so I still stand firm in that.”

Dorsey said he certainly understands why some people could be upset by his stand on this issue, but he remains resolute in his beliefs.

“My heart is that we stand united as Americans period, that we identify the enemy and not be afraid to call the enemy who he is,” Dorsey said. “My stand is not intended to be defiant, but I do stand proud as an American in defiance of terrorism. My action and my decision is to stand proud and united as Americans, head held high. I still stand by my position, but I do understand some of the consequences and some of the pain that has been caused by it, which were unintended.”

Dorsey said he does regret how his decision has made some people see both Baldwin County and Alabama in a negative light.

“I’m proud to call Alabama my home and the distortion of the issue is not the heart and character of the people of Alabama at all,” Dorsey said. “The prejudice that has been shown to Alabama and Baldwin County is just as inaccurate as all prejudices that have been assumed with regard to the LGBT community.”