April is the month to fly your flags!


Is April the cruelest month?

It’s cruel to people who want to fly U.S. flags often, but only on designated flag-flying dates. (April is also National Poetry Month, so it’s a good time to look up poetry references we should have committed to heart).

For 2017, these are the three dates for flying the U.S. flag; Easter is a national date, the other two are dates suggested for residents of the states involved.

One date, nationally, to fly the flag. That beats March, which has none (in a year with Easter in April and not March). But March has five statehood days, to April’s two.

Take heart! You may fly your U.S. flag any day you choose, or everyday as many people do in Texas (though, too many do not retire their flags every evening . . .).

Three dates to fly Old Glory in April, by the Flag Code and other laws on memorials and commemorations.

  • Easter, April 16
  • Maryland, April 28, 1788, 7th state
  • Louisiana, April 30, 1812 – 18th state

Some people have abused the flag in April.

Caption from The Guardian: Ted Landsmark (centre): ‘I had a sense that something really significant had happened.’ Boston, April 5, 1976. Photograph: stanleyformanphotos.com

Caption from The Guardian: Ted Landsmark (centre): ‘I had a sense that something really significant had happened.’ Boston, April 5, 1976. Photograph: stanleyformanphotos.com

See “That’s me in the picture: Ted Landsmark is assaulted in Boston, at an ‘anti-bussing’ protest, 5 April 1976,” Abigail Radnor, The Guardian, April 17, 2015; and “The U.S. Flag in the 20th Century (Part 2),” The Portland Flag Association.

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3 Responses to April is the month to fly your flags!

  1. […] this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and […]

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  2. […] this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and […]

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  3. Ed Darrell says:

    Yes, it’s a British spelling, “bussing.” In the U.S., travel by bus is “busing,” and kissing is “bussing.”

    Like

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