On the morning of the Fourth of July, I went in the laundry room and retrieved our American flag. I had rolled it around its stick after I took it down in the late afternoon on Flag Day. I’ve been meaning to mount a permanent flag, high up on our garage with proper lighting at night.
I walked to the front of the house, unfurled the flag and placed it in its holder. As I was doing so, this guy from down the block drove by and slowed down. I recognized him. He lives by one of the main exits to our subdivision. He had a big Trump sign in his yard a couple years ago and he has the “Lets Go Brandon” — bad punctuation and all — sticker on his truck’s back bumper.
I’m sorry, but I can’t understand the TikTok-level dumbassery of the “Let’s Go Brandon” thing. If you have something to say, just say it.
He slowed almost to a stop, staring at me. Finally, I made a two-handed, palms up motion toward the flag, like an emcee saying, “Here they are…the stars and stripes!” He drove off.
It reminded me of something that happened a few years back. I used to do a Saturday radio show with the late Emil Franzi. We argued about politics for three hours and had a grand old time. One time, I went to the (much-hated) community mailboxes and a woman came up to me and sneered, “You’re that liberal, aren’t you?”
I said, “Naw, I’m just one of them. We’re everywhere!”
The thing is, we liberals are everywhere. And conservatives are everywhere and MAGA people (who are absolutely not conservatives) are everywhere. It shouldn’t be that big a deal.
Maybe I should tell that guy I’m just as much an American as he is. I love this country as much as he does. I respect the flag as much as he does. I certainly respect it more than the knuckleheads who bastardize it (change its colors, mess with its stripes) just to make a cheap political point.
Assuming he votes as often as I do — which is always — it’s almost a sure thing that we cancel each other’s votes. Big deal. My wife has probably canceled out my vote more than once over the decades. What’s important is that we vote.
Admittedly, there was a time when I was sorely bothered by the thought of someone who didn’t have a clue about issues or policies or history who was canceling out my vote. I mean, did this other person take the time to learn all 27 amendments to the Constitution? Heck, did he/she even know that there are 27 of those things?
But now I know that it’s not important. All I can do is be the best citizen I can be. I can hate all over the vile racist that he — for some reason — has chosen to revere, but I’m not going to hate on him. It’s like what I tell the girls on my basketball team about the kids on the other team. They’re our opponents; they’re not our enemy.
Unfortunately, it’s highly likely that he sees me as an enemy. He and I probably listen to the same vulgar right-wing crap on the radio. I do it for perverse entertainment; I want to see just how many lies the morning guy will tell in the time it takes me to get to the gym. The guy hears the same lies and accepts them as truths.
That gives me hope, that can change but it probably won’t happen anytime soon. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that more than two-thirds of all right-wing radio talk-show hosts are pushing the false narrative that the 2020 election was “stolen.” It absolutely wasn’t. You might try to claim that it was, but if you do, you’re either a nincompoop or a liar. There are no other options. Either you’re too stupid to understand how things work or you’re smart enough to know better but you’re just lying for fun and profit.
Joe Biden won the election by 7 million votes. Were those all stolen? And even going by the Electoral College (the dumbest system ever!), Biden still beat Trump by the exact same margin that Trump, in 2016, declared to be a landslide.
Of course, the ginned-up outrage focuses on two states — Georgia and Arizona — that used to vote Republican but didn’t this time. The outcomes were somewhat surprising, and the respective margins were close, but there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. However, this drives me crazy, what with all the math morons.
Even if the Democrats could snap their fingers — or give the finger — and tell the Trumpers that they can magically have the electoral votes from Georgia and Arizona. It would no longer be a landslide, but Biden would still win. So why can’t they just take that ass-whuppin’ and go home?
As I was putting the flag away that night, I figured that the next time I saw that guy, I might wave and say hello. It couldn’t hurt. I can’t hate on that guy. I don’t even know him — yet.
This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2022.
U.S. Code Section 8
No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
(b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
(c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speakers desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
(e) The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
(k) 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.
In my lifetime, I’ve seen every one of those rules — if we can even call them that — broken.
(a) and (b): At various protests, demonstrations and upheavals.
(c) Does a flag draped over a casket count? (Just asking, don’t throw cows.)
(d) Flag shirts, flag shower curtains — heck, maybe even flag underwear. Pat Paulsen once flashed a flag lining his suit on the Smothers Brothers’ show.
(e) Rolling down the street: five-ton pickup with a ragged, torn-up flag on a stick in the back.
(f) Two words: college dorms.
(g) Tell this one to the anti-corporate demonstrators carrying a flag with company logos replacing stars.
(h) This may be the only rule I have *NOT* personally seen violated. That’s not to say somebody hasn’t tried.
(i) Flags in political ads. Flags on napkins. Flag quilts. Flag toilet paper. Whatever…
(j) Kid Rock wore one around his body at the Super Bowl, moments before Janet Jackson’s infamous non-flag-related wardrobe malfunction.
(k) Burning the flag in a dignified way to destroy it. Let us pause to appreciate the irony.
Be Blessed, Good Readers!
You’ll get no argument from me. Just goes to show that those who claim to be “real ‘mericans” are not above using its symbols to further their own agenda. Ive often wondered how many of those special flags are actually made in China or somewhere other then the United States.
Thanks for taking back the flag. The flag is owned by no one. It is owned by all.
A even more sad commentary on the flag is the fact that in 2017 (most recent released data) the U.S. imported 10 million American flags. Of those, all but 50,000 came from China.
Where do you think the majority of those flags are sold? I will give you a hint it starts with the first letter of the alphabet, “A”. Further on this fact when looking at Gov Spend data measuring three priory years 2021 all sales to the big “A” was around 3 million on government P-cards. This past year that number was 5 million for just one year.
To help combat that degradation of flags not being produced in the US with 100% US-made materials and labor -consider supporting this bill: Collins, Brown Introduce All-American Flag Act on June 16th, 2022. It will require that all of the federal government buy US-made American flags.
Tom Danehy if you need help choosing a great mount or lighting for your flag please visit http://www.carrot-top.com
Thanks Smith. Learned that 70 years ago in Boy Scouts.