DALLAS — Memorial Day was not as relaxing as one Dallas family had hoped. The couple discovered a racially offensive note taped to their front door.

What's worse, it appears that the note was directed at them because they decorated their Southwest Dallas home with American flags for the holiday.

Kenneth Gunter Piper said it's difficult to imagine that the American flag could instigate such ignorance.

"I came out and this paper was taped to the door,” Gunter Piper said. Unfolding it, he never expected what he would see inside.

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The note contained a racist message.

"I read it three times before it actually sunk in what was on the paper," Gunter Piper said.

"Flags and [N-word] are not welcome in this neighborhood,” the note read. “P.S. We didn't fight in wars for [N-word]!!”

"I don't even use this word in my home," Gunter Piper said.

He and his wife Ida moved in to this new neighborhood in the 8500 block of Arroyo Verda Drive 15 months ago. It’s a retirement home, larger than their place in Fort Worth, so their family could all be together, Gunter Piper said.

Memorial Day still means something to them. The couple planted 11 flags over the weekend. But they believe they were targeted for the racist note because they are the only ones on their block to fly the flag on Monday.

"Whoever did this, I want to let them know my father fought overseas,” said Ida Gunter Piper. “My brother did nine years in Vietnam and he was black."

Besides the note, one of their flags was flipped upside down. Furious, they asked the Dallas Police Department to take a report.

"You'd think in 2008 people are bigger and better than this," Kenneth Piper said.

If Memorial Day is a time to reflect, the Gunter Pipers can't help but think how far some still have to go.

Dallas police Senior Cpl. Gerardo Monreal said the department will investigate.

E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com