Flag Day

As I drive home, the last two blocks I pass have eight houses with huge American flags displayed. Year 'round, 24 hours a day, rain or shine. None are illuminated at night. It's obvious that the homeowners have never read, or maybe they just don't care about, the US Flag Code. In a few years, some of the flags are faded and torn. And they still fly. 

I don't fly the flag every day. I don't need to be reminded of which nation I live in. I have an American flag, although it's not huge, and I put it out for Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, and Veteran's Day. The flag code has plenty of other appropriate holidays that I never remember. I never leave the flag out at night, or if it's raining. Sometimes we get a surprise rain, and I feel awful about letting the stars and stripes get wet.  

I have several other slightly smaller flags, too, representing the nations my four children came from, plus those that a few friends and neighbors came from. Plus a Ukrainian flag. Sometimes I put them all out at once, stuck into a window box together, especially when the kids are expected to arrive. Although looking through the code now, I realize that I misunderstood section 7g. I had been displaying several nations' flags and set the American flag in the middle, since it is taller. But now I see I got that from section 7e, which has to do with state and municipal flags. I might need to buy a new American flag that is the same size as the other flags for the international display. I can still use the slightly larger flag for holidays. 

I also don't have the ability to fly the flag at half-staff, since it's affixed to a wooden staff. But since it's not out everyday, that matters little. 

Some antiwar protesters burned American flag during the Vietnam conflict, and some people got really upset about it, more so than they got upset about the images of Americans returning from the war in body bags. When it happened in 1984, Gregory Lee Johnson was arrested on state charges. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled in 1989 that flag burning was a valid form of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. Last year, Trump issued an executive order to make flag burning illegal, but since it is constitutionally protected, the only way to prosecute someone for it is to go around the law sideways. 

However, according to the Flag Code, burning is the only approved way of getting rid of an old, dirty, or worn out flag. It should be done in a respectful way, and your local American Legion will do that for you. I drive by there occasionally, and wonder if anyone ever turns in a flag to them instead of chucking it in the garbage. 

After 9/11, my boss bought a flag that was big enough to cover the front of our building- the biggest flag I'd ever seen outside the Smithsonian. They draped it vertically and incorrectly- with the blue field on the right. I pointed out that the blue field should be at the upper left no matter whether the flag is hung horizontally or vertically, and management groaned and said it was too much trouble to change it. I have a t-shirt with a picture of the flag on it, hung vertically, and people sometimes tell me it's wrong. No it's correct, and the words "Fort Jackson, US Army" underneath should be a clue. And there's a difference between clothing that looks as if it's made of a flag and clothing with a picture of a flag. 

All this sounds very pedantic, but it seems to me if you are going to put your patriotism on display, it's worth the small effort of doing it right. Know what you're doing and why. Otherwise, it's just patriotism cosplay.