Flag etiquette for the 4th of July

July 4, 2007

Every kid should learn this stuff by third grade, but it’s clear from what we see that they don’t.

Flag flying in front of U.S. Capitol (East side) LOC photo

So here’s a quick review of dos and don’ts for display and behavior toward the U.S. flag on this most flag-worthy of days, the 4th of July. With a few comments.

1. Fly your flag, from sunup to sundown. If you’re lucky enough to have a flagpole, run the flag up quickly. Retire it slowly at sunset. Then go see fireworks.

2. Display flags appropriately, if not flown from a staff. If suspended from a building or a wall, remember the blue field of stars should always be on the right — the “northwest corner” as you look at it. Do not display a flag flat.

3. Salute the flag as it opens the 4th of July parade. In a better world, there would be just one U.S. flag at the opening of the parade, and the entire crowd would rise as it passes them in a great patriotic, emotional wave — civilians with their hands over their hearts, hats off; people in uniform saluting appropriately with hats on. It’s likely that your local parade will not be so crisp. Other entries in the parade will have flags, and many will be displayed inappropriately. A true patriot might rise and salute each one — but that would look silly, perhaps even sillier than those sunshine patriots who display the flag inappropriately. Send them a nice letter this year, correcting their behavior. But don’t be obnoxious about it.

4. Do not display the flag from a car antenna, attached to a window of a car, or attached in the back of a truck. That’s against the Flag Code, which says a flag can only be displayed attached to the right front fender of a car, usually with a special attachment. This means that a lot of the National Guard entries in local parades will be wrongly done, according to the flag code. They defend the flag, and we should not make pests of ourselves about it. Write them a letter commending their patriotism. Enclose the Flag Code, and ask them to stick to it next time. Innocent children are watching.

5. Do not dishonor the flag by abusing it or throwing it on the ground. It’s become popular for a local merchant to buy a lot of little plastic flags and pass them out to parade goers. If there is an advertisement on the flag, that is another violation of the Flag Code. The flag should not be used for such commercial purposes. I have, several times, found piles of these flags on the ground, dumped by tired people who were passing them out, or dumped by parade goers who didn’t want to carry the things home. It doesn’t matter if it’s printed on cheap plastic, and made in China — it is our nation’s flag anyway. Honor it. If it is worn, dispose of it soberly, solemnly, and properly.

That’s probably enough for today. When the Flag Desecration Amendment passes — if it ever does — those parade float makers, National Guard soldiers, and merchants, can all be jailed, perhaps. Or punished in other ways.

Until that time, our best hope is to review the rules, obey them, and set examples for others.

Have a wonderful 4th of July! Fly the flag. Read the Declaration of Independence out loud. Love your family, hug them, and feed them well. That’s part of the Pursuit of Happiness that this day honors. It is your right, your unalienable right. Use it wisely, often and well.

4 Comments | 1776, 4th of July, Accuracy, First Amendment, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, History | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Pre-July 4 special: “English only” video insults U.S. flag

June 29, 2007

Okay. I’ve had five or six people send me links to a YouTube video of Ron and Kay Rivoli singing “Press One for English.” Ha. Ha.

It’s a rant about language accommodations. Some Americans, free marketeers for the most part, get all buggy when confronted with a free market in language choices. America is becoming more global, marketing more goods in more places, and getting visited by more people. This growth in commerce brings things like American Airlines’ Spanish language reservations center (Who would have thought? When they can make reservations in Spanish, Spanish speakers buy a lot more airplane tickets.)

And Ron and Kay Rivoli put these fears into a song. Funny.

Can we talk? Can I pick a bone? Ron and Kay Rivoli insult the U.S. flag. They may not mean to do it, they may have done it unthinkingly — but that’s the problem with the whole rant: It’s all unthinking.

Here are the flag insults:

  1. 44 seconds into the video three servicemen are shown saluting the U.S. flag, displayed with the flag of California and the POW-MIA flag. Contrary to the Flag Code and good flag etiquette, the U.S. flag is in the center, rather than to its own right. A center display would be acceptable if the center flag pole were higher than the others — but in this case the U.S. flag’s pole is lower than the other two. Two flag insults at once.
  2. At 2:59 into the video, the flag is shown as cut into an agricultural field of some kind. The Flag Code specifies that the flag is never to be displayed flat. The flag should fly free. Since this flag is cut into a crop on the ground, it cannot be displayed properly. Further, it is generally considered poor etiquette to make representations of the flag out of things other than cloth.

This is all highly ironic. At 1:37 into the video, a scroll of the famous Theodore Roosevelt quote on English as the only language scrolls by. “We have room for but one flag, the American flag,” Roosevelt said (oops — there goes the POW-MIA flag). “We have room but for one language, and that is the English language,” Roosevelt continues.

They use the flag they insult as a model for going for one language? This makes no sense.

Do I pick nits? No, I think that every educated American should know the flag code, and should avoid insult to the U.S. flag at least, if not honor it correctly. I am not pedantic about a lot of things, but this is one.

Ron and Kay Rivoli, you owe America and its flag apologies. Get straight with the flag, before you ask me to insult the traditional languages and free enterprise heritage of our nation. If you want my support, don’t tread on the American flag when you ask it.

The Rivolis owe apologies to the U.S. flag. Will we see it?

89 Comments | Economics, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, History, Illegal Immigrants, Immigration, Patriotism, Reason | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Charles Lindberg, first Iwo Jima flag raising

June 26, 2007

1st flag raising on Iwo Jima, photo by Sgt Lou Lowery, Leatherneck Magazine

First raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. Photo by Sgt. Lou Lowery, Leatherneck Magazine

This photo doesn’t look like the Joe Rosenthal photo that won the Pulitzer Prize, and then inspired the book and movie, Flags of Our Fathers?

It’s not the same photo. Different photographer. Different group of Marines.

This is the first flag raising on Mt. Suribachi, the highest point of the island that was known then as Iwo Jima. This shows the mean of Easy Company, including Charles Lindberg of Grand Forks, North Dakota, raising a flag they carried on a pipe they found. The photo was taken by Sgt. Lou Lowery of Leatherneck Magazine.

Charles Lindberg, one of the Marines in the photo, died this week. He was 86 years old.

In addition carrying a name made famous by that other guy, the pilot, few people believed him when he said his company raised the flag first on Iwo. He wasn’t in the Rosenthal photo. But Lindberg told the truth.

From his obituary on the Associated Press wire (in The Washington Post):

Three of the men in the first raising never saw their photos. They were among the more than 6,800 U.S. servicemen killed in the five-week battle for the island.

By Mr. Lindberg’s account, his commander ordered the first flag replaced and safeguarded because he worried someone would take it as a souvenir. Mr. Lindberg was back in combat when six men raised the second, larger flag about four hours later.

Rosenthal’s photo of the second flag-raising became one of the most enduring images of the war and the model for the U.S. Marine Corps memorial in Washington.

Rosenthal, who died last year, always denied accusations that he staged the photo, and he never claimed it depicted the first raising of a flag over the island.

Mr. Lindberg was shot through the arm March 1 and evacuated. After his discharge in 1946, Mr. Lindberg went home to Grand Forks, N.D. He moved to Richfield, Minn., in 1951 and became an electrician.

If you’re over 45, if you read James Brady’s Flags of Our Fathers, if you saw the Clint Eastwood movie version, or if you’re a fan of Johnny Cash’s Ballad of Ira Hayes, you know the stories of heroism and sorrow and tragedy that accompany Joe Rosenthal’s photo. As so often happens in history, there is a back story, a bit of a correction — and it has some of the same bittersweet flavors.

Lindberg was 24 years old when his company landed on Iwo Jima. That was 62 years ago. Those who were eyewitnesses are mostly gone. We need to seek out those few remaining, brave survivors, and let them tell what they remember, what they saw, how they felt and how they feel.  Of the twelve men who raised the two flags, Lindberg was the last survivor.  Three of the men from each group died in battle action after raising the flags.

Here’s to the memory of Charles Lindberg, a good American, a good soldier. Thank you, Mr. Lindberg.

Charles Lindberg in 1999, holding a copy of Sgt. Lou Lowery's photo of the first Iwo Jima flag raising Charles Lindberg holding the photo taken by Sgt. Lou Lowery of Leatherneck Magazine, of the first U.S. flag raising on Iwo Jima, by Easy Company. Lindberg is the soldier standing in back, on the right of the photo. Lowery’s photo was taken about four hours before the second flag raising, captured by Joe Rosenthal, which photo won the Pulitzer Prize. This photo of Lindberg, left, is from 1999, by Associated Press photographer Jackie Lorentz.

Lindberg’s citation for the Silver Star is below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

16 Comments | Accuracy, Famous Battles, Flag ceremony, Freedom - Political, Geography - Physical, Heroes, History, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

States’ honoring fallen soldiers

June 14, 2007

Just last week I subscribed to Michigan’s service which notifies by e-mail when to fly flags at half-staff, especially since Michigan honors soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan with this simple flag courtesy.  Michigan is the first state I’ve found that offers such notification — from the office of Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm.  (You may subscribe to Michigan’s service at the Governor’s website.)

It turns out that 28 of our 50 states honor fallen soldiers in this fashion.  USA Today carried the full list, compiled by reporters at a couple of Gannett Newspapers.

The entire list is below the fold, quoted exactly from USA Today — is your state one that lowers flags, or not?  If you know of a service to notify people of how the flag should be flown, please tell what you know in the comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Flag day? Heck! Fly it all week!

June 11, 2007

President Bush proclaimed the week of June 10 through 17 National Flag Week, in anticipation of Flag Day, June 14.

Scouts from Mason City IA Globe-Gazette - Troop 14, probably

Fly your U.S. flag all week!

Of course, you may fly your state and local flags, too.

June 14 commemorates the day the first resolution was passed designating the stars and stripes as the national flag of the united colonies, June 14, 1777. This is another event occurring even prior to the creation of the United States by the Constitution.

Full text of the proclamation, and photo credit and explanation, below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Boy Scouts of America, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, History, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Joe Rosenthal – Iconic Iwo Jima photo revealed a lot about war and Americans

August 22, 2006

Photo by Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press

 

Joe Rosenthal died. He took the photo of the U.S. flag-raising atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima that became an icon of the Pacific War, of dedication to duty, and of the deeper, sometimes darker currents of war and life in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times captured the basics of the story, noting that the photo Rosenthall took was the second raising of a larger flag, a smaller one having been raised a bit earlier. (Other worthwhile stories include those in the Seattle Times, Scotsman.com, and The San Francisco Times.)

Mt. Suribachi, though little more than a large mound on the island, is the highest point there and visible all around the island. The raising of the flag on that spot was a morale booster for U.S. troops and a morale-buster for holdout Japanese troops engaged in one of the nastiest, bloodiest battles of a nasty, bloody war. As the LA Times noted, a third of all U.S. Marines to die in the war died on Iwo Jima: 5,931. Nearly 7,000 U.S. servicemen died, in total — and, fighting to the death from deeply hidden tunnels, nearly all of the Japanese defenders died. Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments | Atomic Bomb, Famous Battles, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Heroes, History, Patriotism, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Flag ceremony update, 2

August 2, 2006

In comments to the first post on flag folding, Chris noted that the American Legion’s website has the ceremony I fisked, verbatim. So I wrote to the American Legion and suggested they explain that the ceremony isn’t official, and perhaps fix some of the errors in it.

I have heard back. They’re sticking by it, even to the wrong words of the hero of the War of 1812, Stephen Decatur. The misquote of Decatur is really no big deal, but the real quote suggests Decatur will stand up for his nation, “. . . our country, right or wrong!”; the erroneous version suggests a ‘well, whatever’ attitude towards defending the nation, “. . . it is still our country.”

I looked: There is nothing at the American Legion site about Millard Fillmore and the White House bathtubs.

I also found the newer Air Force ceremony, posted at USHistory.org, at the “Betsy Ross” site.

Update February 26, 2007:  Go here for another list of the new Air Force ceremony.

Image of folded flag from CNN

6 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fisking a Flag-Fold Flogging

July 19, 2006

Update, March 24, 2007: Be sure to see the updated flag ceremony, which you can find through this post on the news of the its release.

Yes, the flag amendment is dead, again. Yes, the Fourth of July is past. False history continues to plague the U.S. flag, however. When my wife forwarded to me the post below, it was the fourth time I had gotten it, recently. Bad history travels fast and far. Let’s see if we can steer people in a better direction with real facts.

A flag folding at a funeral for a military person carries great weight, without any script at all. Wikimedia image from DOD release: Members of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard fold the American flag over the casket bearing the remains of sailors killed in the Vietnam War during a graveside interment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 2, 2013. Lt. Dennis Peterson, from Huntington Park, Calif.; Ensign Donald Frye, from Los Angeles; and Petty Officers 2nd Class William Jackson, from Stockdale, Texas, and Donald McGrane, from Waverly, Iowa, were killed when their SH-3A Sea King helicopter was shot down on July 19, 1967, over Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. All four crewmembers were assigned to Helicopter Squadron 2.

A flag folding at a funeral for a military person carries great weight, without any script at all. Wikimedia image from DOD release: Members of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard fold the American flag over the casket bearing the remains of sailors killed in the Vietnam War during a graveside interment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 2, 2013. Lt. Dennis Peterson, from Huntington Park, Calif.; Ensign Donald Frye, from Los Angeles; and Petty Officers 2nd Class William Jackson, from Stockdale, Texas, and Donald McGrane, from Waverly, Iowa, were killed when their SH-3A Sea King helicopter was shot down on July 19, 1967, over Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. All four crewmembers were assigned to Helicopter Squadron 2.

Here is the post as it came to me each time — I’ve stripped it of the sappy photos that are occasionally added; note that this is mostly whole cloth invention:

Did You Know This About Our Flag

Meaning of Flag Draped Coffin.

All Americans should be given this lesson. Those who think that America is an arrogant nation should really reconsider that thought. Our founding fathers used God’s word and teachings to establish our Great Nation and I think it’s high time Americans get re-educated about this Nation’s history. Pass it along and be proud of the country we live in and even more proud of those who serve to protect our “GOD GIVEN” rights and freedoms.

To understand what the flag draped coffin really means……

Read the rest of this entry »

28 Comments | 1776, 4th of July, Accuracy, Bogus history, Boy Scouts of America, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Freedom - Political, History, Patriotism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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