Get ready to fly your flag for Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 20, 2017
Armed Forces Day poster for 2017, from the Department of Defense
Americans celebrate Armed Forces Day on the third Saturday in May, by law as listed in the Flag Code.
Get your flag ready, if you haven’t been flying it all week to honor fallen police. Saturday is also the last day of National Police Week, during which flags are flown half-staff to honor fallen policemen. You may fly your flag half-staff on Saturday, too, if you wish; if your flag pole does not allow a half-staff position, fly it at full height.
I agree with you that I dislike the way the right wing has seized the flag, and one of the best icons of patriotism, for their purposes.
I think we need to seize it back. Flying the flag can be mistaken as a political statement, but NOT flying the flag will almost always be slammed as an anti-US statement. As a veteran, you can get away with that better than I.
Plus, there’s always that little surge of joy I get when a right-wing Constitution thumper gets a look of horror when he realizes I’m flying the flag, and then he inevitably belittles the activity. “Anyone can do that,” one says.
To which I say: “Excuse me? You didn’t just say what I thought I heard, did you?” And the issue goes away as long as that guy’s memory.
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Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Pat,
I agree with you that I dislike the way the right wing has seized the flag, and one of the best icons of patriotism, for their purposes.
I think we need to seize it back. Flying the flag can be mistaken as a political statement, but NOT flying the flag will almost always be slammed as an anti-US statement. As a veteran, you can get away with that better than I.
Plus, there’s always that little surge of joy I get when a right-wing Constitution thumper gets a look of horror when he realizes I’m flying the flag, and then he inevitably belittles the activity. “Anyone can do that,” one says.
To which I say: “Excuse me? You didn’t just say what I thought I heard, did you?” And the issue goes away as long as that guy’s memory.
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The poster agrees with you. So does my calendar.
Fixed. Thanks.
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WHAT DATE…My calendar says Saturday is the 20th.
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Sorry, Ed, even as a veteran I won’t be doing that. I wouldn’t want anyone to mistakenly believe that a Trump supporter lived in our house.
I HATE what the American right wing has done to honest and traditional statements of love of country.
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