Which kid is yours?
Scouts at the Arena Show, Day 3, 2010 National Jamboree - "Scouts carry in American flags to start the opening arena show in Ft. A.P. Hill, Va., Tuesday July 27, 2010. Photo by Daniel Giles" (from Flickr stream)
All of them.
They’re all our kids
July 29, 2010
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Boy Scouts of America, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, National Jamboree | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
July 4, 2010 – Fly your flag today
July 4, 2010Fourth of July: NPR has already read the Declaration of Independence, PBS has the Capitol Fourth concert this evening (8:00 p.m. Eastern — check your local listings), your town has a parade somewhere this weekend, and fireworks are everywhere.
Remember to put your flag up today.
Last flag on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and the U.S. Flag -- Apollo 17 on the Moon (NASA photo)
Also:
- “Fireworks in Washington, D.C.” (from 2009)
- Another post from 2009 – linked for the photo
- Our current 50-star flag is the longest-flying flag since 1789; since Hawaii’s entry into the Union, the U.S. has gone the longest stretch without adding a state (is it time to add one?)
- Fun quizzes on the Fourth of July, from PBS’s “Capitol Fourth.”
- Advice on photographing fireworks, from PBS (with experience on the Mall in Washington, D.C.), and from Ritz Camera and the New York Institute of Photography
- One more way we know the Moon landings were real — the photo below shows the flag from the photo above, still on the Moon.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of Apollo 17 landing site
8 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Holidays, Independence Day, Moon, NASA, Patriotism | Tagged: 4th of July, Apollo 17, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Fourth of July, History, Holidays, Independence Day, Moon Landings, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Patriotic shame of Corpus Christi, Texas
July 2, 2010
This flag needs to be retired. Will some patriot step up to the job?
Leaving Corpus Christi can be a trial. It’s at least a 15 mile drive from the American Banking Center to Interstate 37, if you go by the Starbucks on Staples to get coffee for the drive back to Dallas. (It’s a 100-yard drive otherwise.)
Tourist that I am I drove Staples all the way back, to see the nitty-gritty of the town.
Must it be this gritty?
The flag above, if it can still be considered a flag, struggles to honor our nation at the corner of Staples and Craig Streets. Clearly this is not a flag that is retired at sundown, as the U.S. flag code urges. It looks as though it has been flying there for at least a year. Perhaps it has flown since September 11, 2001. Perhaps it has flown since the War of 1812.
When a flag becomes tattered, it should be mended, appropriate for a symbol of our nation. When it can no longer be repaired, it should be retired, according to the Congressional Research Service Report for Congress — The United States Flag: Federal Law Related to Display and Associated Questions (pages 11 and 12):
Destruction of Worn Flags
The Flag Code states:
The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.* The act is silent on procedures for burning a flag. It would seem that any procedure which is in good taste and shows no disrespect to the flag would be appropriate. The Flag Protection Act of 1989,38 struck down albeit on grounds unrelated to this specific point,39 prohibited inter alia “knowingly” burning of a flag of the United States, but excepted from prohibition “any conduct consisting of disposal of a flag when it has become worn or soiled.”
Do we have any readers in Corpus Christi? Could you drop by the shop where this flag is flown sometime through the week, and ask them to retire the flag, as an act of honor for our nation?
Thank you.
2 Comments | Flag etiquette, Patriotism | Tagged: Flag Code, Flag etiquette, Flag Retirement, Patriotism, U.S. Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Something to think about as you get your flag ready to fly for July 4
July 2, 2010This is mostly an encore post, from last year.
July 4th is the 234th anniversary of the announcement of the Declaration of Independence. I hope you’re thinking about how you’ll fly the flag this weekend in honor of the Declaration of Independence.
The resolution proposed by Richard Henry Lee calling for independence of the 13 colonies passed the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. The Declaration would be Thomas Jefferson’s crowning achievement, outshining even his presidency and the Louisiana Purchase. John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that July 2 would forever be marked by patriotic displays.
But the Declaration itself, which gave teeth to the resolution, was adopted two days later on July 4 — and that has come to be the day we celebrate.
Detail, John Trumbull's Signing of the Declaration of Independence - The committee of five presents the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock, the President of the Second Continental Congress; from left, the committee is John Adams, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin. Theodor Horydczak photo, Library of Congress
Adams didn’t miss a beat. Who quibbles about a couple of days when the celebrating is so good?
Adams and Jefferson were two of the five-member committee the Congress had tasked to write a declaration. Adams and Ben Franklin quickly determined to leave it up to Jefferson, who had a grand flair with words, and who had just written a couple of stirring documents for Virginia. Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston, the other two members, went along. And so it was that the Declaration of Independence is almost completely the work of Thomas Jefferson.
Adams and Jefferson became friends only later, when they both served the nation at war as ambassadors to France, and then for Adams, to England. A widower, Jefferson was taken in by Abigail Adams who worried about him. After the war, Jefferson was in England when Adams was to meet King George III in a grand ceremony in which the king would accept the credentials of all the ambassadors of foreign nations to England. As the king strode down the line, each ambassador or delegation would bow, the king would acknowledge them, the papers would be passed, and the king would move on. Adams and Jefferson bowed. King George moved on, ignoring them completely.
In such a case of such a snub, the snubbed foreigners usually made a quick exit. Adams and Jefferson did not. They stood at attention as if the king had treated them like all the rest, reversing the snub. From the beginning, Americans and the United States pushed for more practical, reasonable, and compassionate government and relations.
Back in America in peacetime, and both members of the administration of George Washington, Adams and Jefferson fell out. Secretary of State Jefferson favored a more limited federal government; Vice President Adams favored a more powerful one. By the end of Washington’s second term, party politics had been well developed. Adams defeated Jefferson in the election of 1796. As was the law then, Jefferson was vice president as the runner-up vote getter in the electoral college; but Adams kept Jefferson out of all government affairs. Perhaps because he didn’t have Jefferson to help, Adams’s presidency did not go well. In the rematch election in 1800, one of the bitterest fights ever, Jefferson’s party defeated Adams. The gleeful Democratic-Republican electors all voted one ballot for Jefferson, the presidential candidate, and one ballot for Aaron Burr, the party’s vice presidential candidate.
Alas, that produced a tie vote in the electoral college. Adams’s party, the Federalists, still held the House of Representatives before the new Congress came in. A tie vote goes to the House for decision. They could not bring themselves to vote for Jefferson, and the deadlock continued for 37 ballots. Finally Jefferson’s former friend but now arch enemy Alexander Hamilton intervened, explaining that Burr was clearly the greater scoundrel, and the House elected Jefferson. Adams slunk out of town, avoiding the inauguration.
It wasn’t until after 1809 when Benjamin Rush hoodwinked Jefferson into writing to Adams, and Adams to Jefferson, that the two became friendly again. For the next 17 years Jefferson and Adams carried on perhaps the greatest series of correspondence in history between two great minds. Letters went out almost daily, from Monticello, Virginia, to Braintree, Massachusetts, and from Braintree to Monticello. They discussed the weather, their families, old times, farming — but especially the republic they had been most instrumental in creating, and how it might be preserved, and prosper. Eventually the letters became harder to read, both because their eyesight was failing, and because their penmanship deteriorated, too.
The ideas, however, flowed like a great river of freedom.
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, August 15th, 1820. From The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827. Library of Congress image
Both men took ill early in 1826. This was a landmark year, 50 years since the Declaration of Independence. In Massachusetts, a grand display of fireworks was to cap off a day of feasting and celebration. Adams hoped he might attend. In Virginia, a week before, it became clear Jefferson was too ill to venture even as close as Charlottesville for the celebration. Jefferson slept through most of July 3, but awoke about 9:00 p.m., and asked, “This is the fourth?” It was not. These are the last significant, recorded words of Jefferson. He awoke at about 4:00 a.m. on the Fourth of July, 1826, but could not make a rally. He died at 12:50 in the afternoon.
Adams, too, was too ill to attend the celebrations. In the late afternoon or early evening of the Fourth, he awoke, and heard the celebration in the town. Almost as if he had worked just to live to see that particular day, he checked the date. Realizing he was near the end, happy that he’d seen 50 years after the Declaration, and unaware of the events earlier that day in Virginia, Adams said, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Adams, too, died on July 4, 1826.
Fly your flag July 4th. Remember John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Remember their great work in creating the nation that protects our freedoms today. Remember their great friendship. Write a letter to a good friend you’ve not written to lately.
It is Independence Day this Sunday. Their spirit survives in us, as we celebrate, and if we remember why we celebrate.
4 Comments | 1776, America's founding, American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Independence Day, John Adams, July 4 1776, Thomas Jefferson | Tagged: Declaration of Independence, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag, Fourth of July, History, John Adams, July 4 1826, Patriotism, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
1943 conflict: Flag, First Amendment’s Establishment Clause
June 14, 2010Historic irony: On Flag Day in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of West Virginia vs. Barnette.
Image 1 - Billy Gobitas explained why he would not salute the U.S. flag, November 5, 1935 - Library of Congress collection
The case started earlier, in 1935, when a 10-year-old student in West Virginia, sticking to his Jehovah’s Witness principles, refused to salute the U.S. flag in a state-required pledge of allegiance. From the Library of Congress:
“I do not salute the flag because I have promised to do the will of God,” wrote ten-year-old Billy Gobitas (1925-1989) to the Minersville, Pennsylvania, school board in 1935. His refusal, and that of his sister Lillian (age twelve), touched off one of several constitutional legal cases delineating the tension between the state’s authority to require respect for national symbols and an individual’s right to freedom of speech and religion.
The Gobitas children attended a public school which, as did most public schools at that time, required all students to salute and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States. The Gobitas children were members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a church that in 1935 believed that the ceremonial saluting of a national flag was a form of idolatry, a violation of the commandment in Exodus 20:4-6 that “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor bow down to them. . . .” and forbidden as well by John 5:21 and Matthew 22:21. On 22 October 1935, Billy Gobitas acted on this belief and refused to participate in the daily flag and pledge ceremony. The next day Lillian Gobitas did the same. In this letter Billy Gobitas in his own hand explained his reasons to the school board, but on 6 November 1935, the directors of the Minersville School District voted to expel the two children for insubordination.
The Watch Tower Society of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sued on behalf of the children. The decisions of both the United States district court and court of appeals was in favor of the right of the children to refuse to salute. But in 1940 the United States Supreme Court by an eight-to-one vote reversed these lower court decisions and ruled that the government had the authority to compel respect for the flag as a key symbol of national unity. Minersville v. Gobitis [a printer’s error has enshrined a misspelling of the Gobitas name in legal records] was not, however, the last legal word on the subject. In 1943 the Supreme Court by a six-to-three vote in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, another case involving the Jehovah’s Witnesses, reconsidered its decision in Gobitis and held that the right of free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution denies the government the authority to compel the saluting of the American flag or the recitation of the pledge of allegiance.
There had been strong public reaction against the Gobitis decision, which had been written by Justice Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965). In the court term immediately following the decision, Frankfurter noted in his scrapbook that Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980) told him that Justice Hugo LaFayette Black (1886-1971) had changed his mind about the Gobitis case. Frankfurter asked, “Has Hugo been re-reading the Constitution during the summer?” Douglas replied, “No–he has been reading the papers.”1 The Library’s William Gobitas Papers showcase the perspective of a litigant, whereas the abstract legal considerations raised by Gobitis and other cases are represented in the papers of numerous Supreme Court justices held by the Manuscript Division.
1. Quoted in H. N. Hirsch, The Enigma of Felix Frankfurter (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 152.
John E. Haynes and David Wigdor, Manuscript Division
Second page, Billy Gobitas's explanation of why he will not salute the U.S. flag: "I do not salute the flag not because I do not love my country but I love my country and I love God more and I must obey His commandments." - Library of Congress
Supreme Court justices do not often get a chance to reconsider their decisions. For example, overturning Plessy vs. Ferguson from 1896 took until 1954 in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. In the flag salute/pledge of allegiance cases Justice Hugo Black had a change of mind, and when a similar case from West Virginia fell on the Court’s doorstep in 1943, the earlier Gobitis decision was reversed.
Writing for the majority, Justice Robert H. Jackson said:
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and all other Americans, thereby have the right to refuse to say what they and their faith consider to be a vain oath.
And that, boys and girls, is what the First Amendment means.
Resources:
3 Comments | DBQ sources, First Amendment, Flag etiquette, Historic documents, History, Patriotism, Religion, Religious Freedom | Tagged: Advanced Placement, Constitutional Law, DBQ sources, First Amendment, flag, Flag etiquette, History, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Flag Day 2010 – Wave those stars and stripes
June 14, 2010June 14th marks the anniversary of the resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, adopting the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.
Fly your flag today. This is one of the score of dates upon which Congress suggests we fly our flags.
Flag Day 1916, parade in Washington, D.C. - employees of National Geographic Society march - photo by Gilbert Grosvenor
The photo above drips with history. Here’s the description from the National Geographic Society site:
One hundred and fifty National Geographic Society employees march in the Preparedness Parade on Flag Day, June 14, in 1916. With WWI underway in Europe and increasing tensions along the Mexican border, President Woodrow Wilson marched alongside 60,000 participants in the parade, just one event of many around the country intended to rededicate the American people to the ideals of the nation.
Not only the anniversary of the day the flag was adopted by Congress, Flag Day is also the anniversary of President Dwight Eisenhower’s controversial addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.
(Text adapted from “:Culture: Allegiance to the Pledge?” June 2006, National Geographic magazine)
The first presidential declaration of Flag Day was 1916, by President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson won re-election the following November with his pledge to keep America out of World War I, but by April of 1917 he would ask for a declaration of war after Germany resumed torpedoing of U.S. ships. The photo shows an America dedicated to peace but closer to war than anyone imagined. Because the suffragettes supported Wilson so strongly, he returned the favor, supporting an amendment to the Constitution to grant women a Constitutional right to vote. The amendment passed Congress with Wilson’s support and was ratified by the states.
The flags of 1916 should have carried 48 stars. New Mexico and Arizona were the 47th and 48th states, Arizona joining the union in 1913. No new states would be added until Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. That 46-year period marked the longest time the U.S. had gone without adding states, until today. No new states have been added since Hawaii, more than 49 years ago. (U.S. history students: Have ever heard of an essay, “Manifest destiny fulfilled?”)
150 employees of the National Geographic Society marched, and as the proud CEO of any organization, Society founder Gilbert H. Grosvenor wanted a photo of his organization’s contribution to the parade. Notice that Grosvenor himself is the photographer.
I wonder if Woodrow Wilson took any photos that day, and where they might be hidden.
History of Flag Day from a larger perspective, from the Library of Congress:
Since 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a national Flag Day on June 14, Americans have commemorated the adoption of the Stars and Stripes by celebrating June 14 as Flag Day. Prior to 1916, many localities and a few states had been celebrating the day for years. Congressional legislation designating that date as the national Flag Day was signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1949; the legislation also called upon the president to issue a flag day proclamation every year.
According to legend, in 1776, George Washington commissioned Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross to create a flag for the new nation. Scholars debate this legend, but agree that Mrs. Ross most likely knew Washington and sewed flags. To date, there have been twenty-seven official versions of the flag, but the arrangement of the stars varied according to the flag-makers’ preferences until 1912 when President Taft standardized the then-new flag’s forty-eight stars into six rows of eight. The forty-nine-star flag (1959-60), as well as the fifty-star flag, also have standardized star patterns. The current version of the flag dates to July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state on August 21, 1959.
Fly your flag with pride today.
Elmhurst Flag Day 1939, DuPage County Centennial - Posters From the WPA
Elmhurst flag day, June 18, 1939, Du Page County centennial / Beauparlant.
Chicago, Ill.: WPA Federal Art Project, 1939.
By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
1 Comment | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Historic documents, History, History images, Patriotism, Pledge to the flag, World War I | Tagged: Flag Day, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Historic Images, History, June 14, Library of Congress, Patriotism, Posters, World War I | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This is Memorial Day: Please fly your flag
May 31, 2010
U.S. flags wave at DFW National Cemetery, May 30, 2010. Photo by Ed Darrell
Our local Rotary Club provides a U.S. flag planted in your yard for flag-flying events from Memorial Day through Labor Day, for an annual subscription of about $15.00. Local groups, including especially Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, take a route and plant the flags.
As a consequence, our town is loaded with flags on a weekend like this one.
But even if you don’t subscribe to a flag service, please remember to fly your flag today.
Memorial Day honors people who died in defense of the nation. Armed Forces Day honors those who serve currently, celebrated the third Saturday in May. Veterans Day honors the veterans who returned.
On Memorial Day itself, flags on poles or masts should be flown at half-staff from sunrise to noon. At noon, flags should be raised to full-staff position.
When posting a flag at half-staff, the flag should be raised to the full-staff position first, with vigor, then slowly lowered to half-staff; when retiring a flag posted at half-staff, it should be raised to the full staff position first, with vigor, and then be slowly lowered. Some people attach black streamers to stationary flags, though this is not officially recognized by the U.S. Flag Code.
On Memorial Day, 3:00 p.m. local time is designated as the National Moment of Remembrance.
_____________
Update: Honoring our war dead makes unusual bedfellows, no? Agreement on honorable things creates hope that we can agree on more things, on other important things.
4 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Holidays | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Memorial | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Memorial Day 2010: Fly your flag, study history, honor the dead
May 29, 2010(Much of this post is encore material, from Memorial Day 2009.)
Please fly your flag this weekend, and especially Monday, to honor those who gave up their lives in defense of the nation and our freedoms.
Memorial Day, traditionally observed on May 30, now observed the last Monday in May, honors fallen veterans of wars. Traditionally, family members visit the cemetery where loved ones are interred and leave flowers on the grave.
Memorial Day honors people who died in defense of the nation. Armed Forces Day honors those who serve currently, celebrated the third Saturday in May. Veterans Day honors the veterans who returned.
On Memorial Day itself, flags on poles or masts should be flown at half-staff from sunrise to noon. At noon, flags should be raised to full-staff position.
When posting a flag at half-staff, the flag should be raised to the full-staff position first, with vigor, then slowly lowered to half-staff; when retiring a flag posted at half-staff, it should be raised to the full staff position first, with vigor, and then be slowly lowered. Some people attach black streamers to stationary flags, though this is not officially recognized by the U.S. Flag Code.
On Memorial Day, 3:00 p.m. local time is designated as the National Moment of Remembrance.
Got another week of school? Here’s a quiz about the history of Memorial Day that might make a warm-up, provided by Carolyn Abell writing in the Tifton (Georgia) Gazette:
1. Memorial Day was first officially proclaimed by a general officer. His name was: A. Robert E. Lee; B. John A. Logan; C. Douglas MacArthur D. George Washington.
2. The first state to officially recognize Memorial Day was A. Virginia; B. Rhode Island; C. New York; D. Georgia.
3. The use of poppies to commemorate Memorial Day started in A. 1870 B. 1915 C. 1948; D. 1967.
4. The original date of Memorial Day was A. May 30; B. July 4; C. May 28; D. Nov 11.
5. Which U.S. Senator has tried repeatedly to pass legislation that would restore the traditional day of Memorial Day observance? A. John McCain B. Ted Kennedy C. Saxby Chambliss D. Daniel Inouye.
The answers, again provided by the Tifton Gazette:
OK, now for the answers. General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, proclaimed May 30, 1968 as Memorial Day in his General Order Number 11, issued on May 5, 1868. The purpose was to honor the dead from both sides in the War Between the States. Subsequently flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery on May 30 of that year.
New York was the first state to officially recognize the Memorial Day, in 1873. Southern states, though paying tribute to their dead on separate dates, refused to use May 30 as the official date until after World War I, when the holiday was broadened to honor those who died in any war.
In 1915 a woman named Moina Michael, inspired by the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” (by Canadian Colonel John McRae) began wearing red poppies on Memorial Day to honor our nation’s war dead. The tradition grew and even spread to other countries. In 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to sell the poppies made by disabled veterans as a national effort to raise funds in support of programs for veterans and their dependents. In 1948 the US Post Office issued a red 3-cent stamp honoring Michael for her role in founding the national poppy movement.
As stated above, May 30 was the original Memorial Day. In 1971, with the passage of the national Holiday Act, Congress changed it so that Memorial Day would be celebrated on the last Monday of May. Some citizens feel that turning it into a “three-day weekend” has devalued the importance and significance of this special holiday. In fact, every time a new Congress has convened since 1989, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii has introduced a bill to the Senate calling for the restoration of May 30th as the day to celebrate Memorial Day.
In his 1999 introductory remarks to the bill, Senator Inouye declared:
“Mr. President, in our effort to accommodate many Americans by making the last Monday in May, Memorial Day, we have lost sight of the significance of this day to our nation. Instead of using Memorial Day as a time to honor and reflect on the sacrifices made by Americans in combat, many Americans use the day as a celebration of the beginning of summer. My bill would restore Memorial Day to May 30 and authorize the flag to fly at half mast on that day.
In addition, this legislation would authorize the President to issue a proclamation designating Memorial Day and Veterans Day as days for prayer and ceremonies honoring American veterans. This legislation would help restore the recognition our veterans deserve for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of our nation.” (from the 1999 U.S. Congressional Record).
Other sources:
- Presidential Proclamation for Memorial Day 2010
- Presidential Proclamation and prayer for peace, 2009
- President’s weekly address, “Sacrifice” (video) – 2009
- White House Commission on Remembrance
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs page on Memorial Day
- Today in History, Library of Congress (for May 30) – history of the proclamations during the Civil War is especially good
- Flying the flag at half-staff, U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
- Half-staff notification from Apex Flags
- Flags Bay article on flying the flag at half-staff
- From the Department of Veterans Affairs, a .pdf booklet on the history and traditions of all patriotic holidays and flag flying involving veterans, Celebrating America’s Freedoms
- Jim Stanley’s Facebook essay on Memorial Day
7 Comments | Citizenship, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, History, Holidays, Patriotism, President Obama, Presidents | Tagged: Citizenship, Defending Freedom, Fly your flag, freedom, History, Memorial Day, Patriotism, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fly your flag today to honor Americans protecting our freedoms
May 15, 2010Armed Forces Day honors those Americans who are, today, protecting our freedom, under arms, in the U.S. military services.
Veterans Day honors those who protected us in the past. Memorial Day honors those who died in our nation’s service, and those veterans who have passed on. Armed Forces Day honors and celebrates living Americans, to whom we owe immediate thanks.
Fly your flag today in their honor. Today is Armed Forces Day.
Armed Forces Day Poster, 2010
6 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, History | Tagged: Armed Forces Day, Current History, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, History, May 15 2010 | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Armed Forces Day 2010 – Fly your flag Saturday, May 15
May 10, 2010
Armed Forces Day 2010 poster
At the moment the link is down, to download a sharp copy of the poster for printing in gigantic size, but that shouldn’t stop you from planning to fly your flag next Saturday, May 15, for Armed Forces Day. We honor those men and women currently in uniform serving our nation on the third Saturday in May
Previously, in Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
5 Comments | Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Military History, veterans | Tagged: Armed Forces Day, Flag etiquette, Flag Fly Dates, Fly your flag today, History, Military History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Flag flying on the National Day of Prayer?
May 6, 2010We’re coming up on four relatively under-appreciated flag-flying dates before Independence Day (July 4):
- Mother’s Day, second Sunday in May
- Armed Forces Day, third Saturday in May
- Memorial Day (half-staff until noon*), the last Monday in May
- Flag Day, June 14
President Obama at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill - White House photo
I was surprised to see the “fly your flag today” note in the Dallas Morning News today, especially with the accompanying news story. As you can see above, it’s not on the flag-fly list in law. President Obama’s declaration of the National Day of Prayer doesn’t suggest flying the flag.
We are blessed to live in a Nation that counts freedom of conscience and free exercise of religion among its most fundamental principles, thereby ensuring that all people of goodwill may hold and practice their beliefs according to the dictates of their consciences. Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the importance of prayer on this day across the Nation.
Let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those suffering from natural disasters in Haiti, Chile, and elsewhere, and the people from those countries and from around the world who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to render aid. Let us pray for the families of the West Virginia miners, and the people of Poland who so recently and unexpectedly lost many of their beloved leaders. Let us pray for the safety and success of those who have left home to serve in our Armed Forces, putting their lives at risk in order to make the world a safer place. As we remember them, let us not forget their families and the substantial sacrifices that they make every day. Let us remember the unsung heroes who struggle to build their communities, raise their families, and help their neighbors, for they are the wellspring of our greatness. Finally, let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those people everywhere who join us in the aspiration for a world that is just, peaceful, free, and respectful of the dignity of every human being.
It’s not in the Congressional Resolution that declares the day (see it tucked in there between National Aviation Day and National Defense Transportation Day).
You may fly your flag any day. But so far as I can tell, we’re not urged by law to fly the flag for prayer day.
In addition to those many worthy things to pray or meditate for on National Prayer Day, pray for a rational solution to the flap over the day. Since when does anyone need a law to allow them pray? Who is trying to claim an official flag-flying mantle, and why do they think a right to pray needs such a boost?
More:
4 Comments | Bogus history, First Amendment, Flag etiquette, History, Religious Freedom | Tagged: Bogus history, Flag etiquette, Flag Fly Dates, Freedom of Religion, History, Law, National Day of Prayer | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fly your flag today: Presidents Day 2010
February 15, 2010Fly your flag today.
White House with U.S. flag at night; photo by Keith Stanley, kestan.com
Residents of the United States celebrate Presidents Day today, a holiday that grew out of celebrations of the birthdays of both George Washington (February 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809), both of whom were born in February (under the “new” Gregorian calendar).
President’s Day is one of a score of dates Congress recognized in the Flag Code as appropriate for patriotic display of the U.S. flag.
Note: Keith Stanley sells his photos, including this one of the White House at night. You can view this one, and many more, and purchase copies, at Mr. Stanley’s website.
1 Comment | Abraham Lincoln, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, George Washington, History, Presidents | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, George Washington, History, Presidents, Presidents Day | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fly your U.S. flag today, in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18, 2010
King Center poster for MLK Day 2010
Fly your flag today.
U.S. law encourages Americans to fly the U.S. flag on holidays and a few other occasions. Congress set aside the third Monday in January as a holiday to commemorate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To honor Dr. King, for several years civil rights leaders and others have urged us to find some way to serve our communities on this day — Americans have done it long enough to make it a tradition. Here’s the official find-a-way-to-serve page from the the federal government; look out your window, go spend a few minutes at your city hall, post office, or at the biggest church in town, or walk into any middle school in America, and opportunities to serve will caress you at every turn.
More, much more:
- Obama gives place of honor to bust of King in the Oval Office, St. Louis Post-Dispatch blog; ABC News story
- The King Center homepage
- SMU’s week in 2008 commemorating Dr. King and his visit to SMU
- Enchanted Learning’s page on King (a good resource for students’ report ideas)
- Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (a stellar resource for teachers)
- Seattle Times special report on King
- Tribute at 56 Rebels (good videos of King speeches)
King, by photographer Ben Fernandez's portfolio of photos from one year in the life of Dr. King, "Countdown to Eternity"
- 2009 MLK Day post at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (see resources)
- “Arc of History, Under the St. Louis Arch”
- 2008 MLK Day post here
Google's logo for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 2010 - click for more information
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6 Comments | Citizenship, Civil Rights, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Holidays, Human Rights, Martin Luther King | Tagged: Citizenship, Civil Rights, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Human Rights, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Palin: Ignore the woman abusing the flag and look at those gams!
November 18, 2009Newsweek features Sarah Palin on the cover this week, a couple of weeks after featuring Al Gore. I thought the Gore cover was interesting, but could be interpreted to make him look sinister.
Sexist? Or sac-patriotic?
Palin, on the other hand, is featured in a full photo she posed for Runners World last year. A flattering photo, it also features a U.S. flag, which we’ll get back to in a moment.
Palin complains that the cover is “sexist.”
Yahoo! News has the story, featuring Palin’s Facebook complaint.
“The choice of photo for the cover of this week’s Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this “news” magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner’s World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness — a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention — even if out of context.
But look at the cover. Newsweek brands Palin as a problem — for Republicans. Is the sexism charge designed to divert attention from what Newsweek is saying, editorially?
Look at the display of the flag. Clearly out of flag code on all scores, it appears as if she’s using the flag much as an athletic towel. Now think of the rage the right worked up to when candidate Obama didn’t wear a flag lapel pin. Can you imagine the rage had any Democrat posed for a picture, leaning on the flag like that?
The photo reveals Palin and her handlers as ill-informed on the flag code, and willing to do almost anything to get a camera. I find it interesting that now, more than a year after she posed for the picture, she’s concerned about her showing of leg and not about the political issues raised by Newsweek.
Almost no one worries about the disrespect for the U.S. flag.
_____________
Update: Good commentary at Obsidian Wings — and note the first five or so comments. Smart readers there! Much the same at Majikthise.
2 Comments | Flag etiquette, History, Patriotism, Politics | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Newsweek, Patriotism, Politics, Sara Palin, U.S. Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Brave 10-year-old Arkansas boy refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance, on principle
November 17, 2009Adults worry about peer pressure. Kids can goad other kids into doing stupid things, dangerous things, illegal things, and immoral things.
Pressure from adults on kids might be just as strong.
What about a 10-year-old kid who stands up to peer pressure, and stands for principle against adults who use all sorts of inducements to get him to do something he believes is wrong?
I offer a salute to Will Phillips of West Fork School District, in Washington County, Arkansas.
Will believes homosexuals in America are not beneficiaries of liberty and justice for all. Will now refuses to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance for that reason.
It’s probably not what I’d advise the young man to do to protest, but he has every right. He’s thought it through, which may not be said for the substitute teacher and the school administrator who tried to pressure him into giving up on his principles.
In the Arkansas Times, David Koon writes the story:
A boy and his flag
David Koon
Updated: 11/5/2009WILL PHILLIPS: Freedom lover.
Will Phillips isn’t like other boys his age.
For one thing, he’s smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what’s playing on Radio Disney.
It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will’s mother. “Yes, my son is 10,” she said. “But he’s probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He’s not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair.”
Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will’s mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.
“She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up,” Will said. “I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ‘With all due respect, ma’am, you can go jump off a bridge.’ ”
Will was sent to the office, where he was given an assignment to look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, the principal called his mother.
“She said we have to talk about Will, because he told a sub to jump off a bridge,” Laura Phillips said. “My first response was: Why? He’s not just going to say this because he doesn’t want to do his math work.”
Eventually, Phillips said, the principal told her that the altercation was over Will’s refusal to stand for the pledge of allegiance, and admitted that it was Will’s right not to stand. Given that, Laura Phillips asked the principal when they could expect an apology from the teacher. “She said, ‘Well I don’t think that’s necessary at this point,’ ” Phillips said.
After Phillips put a post on the instant-blogging site twitter.com about the incident, several of her friends got angry and alerted the news media. Meanwhile, Will Phillips still refuses to stand during the pledge of allegiance. Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don’t have been unkind, and louder.
“They [the kids who don’t support him] are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are.”
Given that his protest is over the rights of gays and lesbians, the taunts have taken a predictable bent. “In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” he said. “It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”
Even so, Will said that he can’t foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge. To help him deal with the peer pressure, his parents have printed off posts in his support on blogs and websites. “We’ve told him that people here might not support you, but we’ve shown him there are people all over that support you,” Phillips said. “It’s really frustrating to him that people are being so immature.”
At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will’s answer, though, is good enough — simple enough, true enough — to give me a little rush of goose pimples. What does being an American mean?
“Freedom of speech,” Will says, without even stopping to think. “The freedom to disagree. That’s what I think pretty much being an American represents.”
Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson smiles.
12 Comments | Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, History, Justice, Patriotism, Pledge to the flag | Tagged: Arkansas, Arkansas Times, Flag etiquette, Justice, Liberty, Patriotism, Pledge Allegiance, Pledge of Allegiance, WILL PHILLIPS | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 