Remember to fly the flag on July 4, 2008, the 232nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (Postcard above, from 1907, from collection of James R. Heintze)
Flags may be flown sun-up to sun-down. The U.S. flag should be run up the pole quickly, and be left to fly unfettered in the breeze. The flag may be left flying after sundown, if it is lighted.
Resources:
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Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Freedom - Political, History, History and art, History images, Patriotism | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Fourht of July, Fourth of July, History, Patriotism | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Did you fly your flag today? Even without my reminding you? Good!
Painting by Norman Rockwell, Scout saluting the flag.
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism | Tagged: flag, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Got an e-mail with a question.
Today is the 64th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy in World War II, a date generally called D-Day. No, you don’t have to fly your flag. This is not one of the days designated by Congress for flag-flying.
But you may, and probably, you should.
5 Comments | Famous Battles, Flag etiquette, History, War, World War II | Tagged: D-Day, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
(Much of this is reprise from Memorial Day 2007)
You may fly your flag the entire weekend. Please fly your flag today.
Memorial Day, traditionally observed on May 30, now observed the last Monday in May, is a day to honor fallen veterans of wars. Traditionally, family members visit the cemetery where loved ones are interred and leave flowers on the grave.
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.
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:
4 Comments | Citizenship, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Patriotism, veterans, War | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Life, Memorial Day, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Interesting. The hottest post on this blog today is the one I wrote about honoring Armed Forces Day — last year! The post for Armed Forces Day this year is up there, too.
One of the lessons of Vietnam is that we need to honor our soldiers who go to defend the nation, even when the wars may be of dubious origin. The dubious origins of war cannot be blamed on the soldiers, sailors and airmen who go to do their duty, and they are the ones who can redeem the nation from a disastrous foreign policy, if anyone can.
Love the serviceman, hate the war. Honor the soldier, work on the politicians to change the policy. It’s a workable arrangement that honors good people for doing noble service.
Remember: Memorial Day honors those who died in service to the country; Veterans Day honors the veterans who came back, having served. Armed Forces Day honors those who serve today.
Fly your flag today.
6 Comments | Afghanistan, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Iraq, Lessons of history, Lessons of Vietnam, Patriotism, veterans | Tagged: Afghanistan, Armed Forces Day, Fly your flag today, Iraq, Lessons of Vietnam, veterans | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Flag etiquette reminder: Armed Forces Day is the third Saturday in May, this year on May 17. This is one of the days Congress suggests we should fly our flags. There may be events near your home.
Resources:
10 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, veterans | Tagged: Armed Forces Day, flag, veterans | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Odds are high that readers of any blog are too young to remember. Heck, I’d forgotten about it until Matthew Tabor reminded me.
April 25, 1976: Rick Monday, center fielder for the Chicago Cubs, saved the U.S. flag.
Get the story from Tabor’s blog. He offers credits to HotAir.com.
Major League Baseball was kind enough to preserve the story, which you may watch below.
Resources:
14 Comments | Citizenship, Flag etiquette, Good Deeds, Heroes, History, History images, History video sources, Patriotism, Video and film | Tagged: Baseball, Flag Burning, History, Patriotism, Rick Monday, US Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The ad says “Come visit Utopia in Baltimore.” With an orgy of maps like that planned, it should be a Utopia for somebody: Geographers, cartographers, historians, and anyone interested in travel.
Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum hosts an outstanding exhibit of world-changing maps through June 8, a Festival of Maps; the entire town appears to have gone ga-ga on the idea. Baltimore will be Map Central for a few weeks, at least.
Among the treasures is a huge and beautiful map of the fossil-embedded geological strata that underlie England and Wales. That masterpiece, published in 1815 by a pioneering geologist named William Smith, offered evidence used to support Darwin’s theory of evolution and set the stage for creation-vs.-evolution debates that still rage.
Then there’s the map researched by a doctor named John Snow in the 1850s. It allowed him to trace the source of a cholera outbreak in London to a well used by residents of a single neighborhood.
And there will be charts prepared by geographer Marie Tharp of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge, a mountainous rise in the mid-Atlantic seabed, based on data gathered by American submarines during World War II and later used to provide evidence of how the Earth’s crust has evolved through geological time.
The Smith and Snow maps anchor key events in science, the origin of paleontology and one of the greatest examples of public health sleuthing. To have both of those maps in one exhibition is a great coup for the Walters, and for Baltimore.
The exhibit also features a map of Utopia drawn by Sir Thomas Moore. Other maps were drawn by Benjamin Franklin, J. R. R. Tolkein, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Here’s a video description of one of the more remarkable pieces on view, a map of London, on a glove:
Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.baltimore.org posted with vodpod
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Surely there is material here for the Strange Maps blog. Here’s a still of the glove, from the collection of The National Archives, UK:
Below the fold, a partial list of some of the other exhibits and events planned in and around Baltimore, which will convince you, I hope, that it is indeed an orgy worth getting a ticket to see.
Baltimore remains one of my favorite towns, despite the loss of my Johnny Unitas-led Colts, despite the Orioles’ recent mediocrity; it’s a place of great history, great neighborhoods, and good food. Crabcakes from several sites, dinner at Sabatino’s, maps in the museums. Utopia indeed.
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, geology, History, History and art, History museums, Literature, Maps, Travel | Tagged: geography, History, Maps, Media, Museums, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Living through history: Independence for Kosovo looks more likely; residents work to pick a flag for the new nation. Several serious hurdles remain; Russia promises to block UN action to support Kosovo independence from Serbia, in the Security Council.
That flag chart on your wall could be obsolete in the near future. What do your geography and world history students know about the new nation of Kosovo?
Resources:
2 Comments | Capturing history, Flag etiquette, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, International law, World history | Tagged: flags, History, international affairs, Kosovo, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Raymond Jacobs died February 5 — he is thought to be the last surviving U.S. soldier pictured in the photos of the flag-raisings on Iwo Jima in 1945.
In the photo at right, Ray Jacobs is the radioman looking up; Associated Press photo
Raymond Jacobs died of natural causes at the age of 82 last week, his daughter told the Associated Press
Jacobs said he was present at the first flag raising, captured by a photographer for Leatherneck magazine. A later flag-raising, to put up a larger flag, was photographed by Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo.
He is said to have returned to his unit by the time a more famous Associated Press photograph of a second flag-raising was taken later the same day.
Jacobs later fought in the Korean conflict in 1951 before retiring as a sergeant. He went on to work as a reporter, anchor and news director in local television in Oakland.
Eyewitnesses to the two World Wars dwindle in numbers. Historians and friends should be certain to capture their stories before they are gone.
Japan renamed the island Iwo To, its name prior to the war.
7 Comments | Famous Battles, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Heroes, History, History images, Journalism, World War II | Tagged: Heroes, Iwo Jima, Media, Raymond Jacobs, US Flag, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 13, 1794, President George Washington signed the law adding two stars and two stripes to the U.S. flag, after Vermont and Kentucky joined the union.
This was the only U.S. flag ever officially to have more than 13 stripes.
Replica of the flag flown during the War of 1812, with 15 stripes and 15 stars. Very few examples of a 15-stripe flag remain. The flag that flew over Ft. McHenry, the original “Star-spangled Banner,” is one. This replica flies in the peace garden in Oswego, New York.
The “Star-spangled Banner” that flew over Ft. McHenry, near Baltimore, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem which was put to music to form our national anthem, had 15 stripes. President James Monroe signed a law in 1818 that specified 13 stripes, with a new star to be added on July 4 of any year after a new state was added, a practice which has held through our current 50-star, 13-stripe flag.
Tennessee was the 16th state. I have been unable to clarify what happened with the number of stripes between Tennessee’s admission to the union on June 1, 1796, and the law passed in the Monroe administration in 1818. Does anyone know? Got links?
More (added after August 2013):
20 Comments | Flag etiquette, History, Patriotism | Tagged: flag, History, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
CBS-3 News in Springfield, Massachusetts, reports a man has been arrested and arraigned for the burning of three U.S. flags in the area. He entered a “not guilty” plea.
3 Comments | Dissent, Flag etiquette, Patriotism | Tagged: Politics, US Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
An Associated Press story in the Boston Herald notes three recent incidents in which U.S. flags were burned, in what appears to be a protest of some sort.
Police say a flag-burning incident in Northampton may be the work of an anti-American anarchist group.
The 5-by-9 foot American flag that hung from a birch tree outside of Eamon Mohan’s house on Bridge Street was reduced to ashes in the Friday night blaze.
A typewritten note left at the home and signed by the “American Patriot Liberation Front” claimed the United States was oppressing millions of people around the world. But police say they are unfamiliar with the group.
Police are investigating whether the flag burning is linked to two other incidents in western Massachusetts this month. A post office flag was thrown in a Dumpster and burned in Greenfield earlier this month and an American flag was stolen last week from outside a home in Amherst.
Notes similar to the one in Northampton were found in both cases.
U.S. flags should not be displayed at night, unless lighted, or unless the site is specifically exempted from that condition of flag display by an Act of Congress.
The Boston Globe reported the family harmed in the latest incident was honoring a child in the military:
Mohan’s family did not appear to be targeted, police said.
Mohan’s daughter, Megan, 19, is a US Marine, currently in training, and his son, Eamonn, 17, plans to join after his 18th birthday next month.
“I’m extremely proud of their serving this fine country,” said Mohan, 43. “No country is perfect, but we do a lot of good around the world that isn’t publicized.”
The note was signed by the “American Patriot Liberation Front.” Police said they were unfamiliar with the group. The group is not listed in the telephone directory, and no contact information could be found for it on the Web.
The protesters appear able to write: Why not a letter to the editor of the local newspaper? Such protests, to the point and to a greater audience, are part of what the flag stands for. The flag burners probably don’t note the irony.
Stupid protests give a bad name to protest.
More information:
1 Comment | Dissent, Flag etiquette, Politics | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Politics, protest, US Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Press release from Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm:
Flags to Fly Half-Staff Throughout Michigan on Friday in Honor of Pearl Harbor Day
LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today encouraged Michigan citizens to observe Pearl Harbor Day on Friday, December 7, by lowering flags across the state to half-staff and remembering those who lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
“On Pearl Harbor Day, we honor the lives lost in the attack 66 years ago and remember that we enjoy freedom thanks to their supreme sacrifices,” Granholm said. “This year, we also salute the men and women stationed around the world, including those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are defending and protecting our freedom today.”
In December 2005, Granholm signed Executive Order 2005-27 ordering the flag of the United States of America be flown half-staff on all state buildings and facilities throughout the state of Michigan on Pearl Harbor Day each December 7. Procedures for flag lowering, including on Pearl Harbor Day, were detailed by Governor Granholm in Executive Order 2006-10. The Legislature officially recognized the sacrifice of the servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives at Pearl Harbor by enacting Public Act 157 of 2000, which declares that December 7 of each year be known as Pearl Harbor Day in the state.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Armed Forces of the United State of America stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, were attacked by the air and naval forces of Imperial Japan. The attack claimed the lives of 2,334 servicemen and servicewomen and wounded another 1,143.
When flown at half-staff or half-mast, the United States flag should be hoisted first to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff or half-mast position. The flag should again be raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day.
# # #
Michiganders, or anyone else, may subscribe to Flag Honors, the service notifying when flags in Michigan are to be flown half-staff. If you know of similar services for any other state, kindly make a note in comments.
Leave a Comment » | 1941-1945, Famous Battles, Flag etiquette, History, veterans, World War II | Tagged: Flag etiquette, History, Patriotism, Pearl Harbor, veterans | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fly your U.S. flag today, to honor veterans of military service. November 11 was originally celebrated as Armistice Day after World War I’s armistice.
5 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, History, War, World War I | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag, Veterans Day | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 