I was checking my calendar as I do every morning, when I discovered that today, 14 June, is an official US holiday (but not a federal holiday — sorry, you don’t get to take a day off work). It’s Flag Day!
I’ve never been much of a fan of flags. I got weirded out back in third grade when I suddenly realized that the morning ritual the school put us through every day was to pledge allegiance to a flag, and I just plain stopped. I’d stand up and try to blend into the background, because I didn’t want to get beat up on the playground afterwards, but wouldn’t say any words. Why? Because they were stupid. A flag is a colorful piece of cloth, nothing more, and not a sentient being or a principle or a deity.
Flag Day has a new level of meaning this year, because flags have become a potent symbol of political disagreement. We’re a polarized nation, so why not trot out a big flag, the uglier the better, to declare your affiliation? I’ve noticed that most of my neighbors don’t have any flags at all; there’s just one house several blocks away that I see with flags tacked up everywhere. They’re all Gadsden flags or blue line flags, and they’re interspersed with Trump signs, and they’ve got “JESUS” spray-painted on their roof.
Maybe flags do have a useful function, then. They’re markers for where the town assholes live.
With that purpose in mind, then, we can see the latest scandal in a new light. Justice Samuel Alito and his wife Martha-Ann have been warring with their neighbors, waving flags to symbolize their allegiance to the Empire of Assholes.
Martha-Ann, when asked about it by a reporter, started screaming and eventually hoisted another, different, flag up the flagpole—did figure in it. It was more about how the Alitos are, as neighbors and just in general.
So it fit that, when given an opportunity or just a moment of otherwise neutral space through which to charge, Martha-Ann simply ran her mania up there in the assumption that the person who had just begun talking to her at a fundraiser would salute. “I’m putting it up and I’m gonna send them a message every day, maybe every week, I’ll be changing the flags,'” she fantasized, to someone she’d never previously met. “They’ll be all kinds. I made a flag in my head. This is how I satisfy myself. I made a flag. It’s white and has yellow and orange flames around it. And in the middle is the word ‘vergogna.’ ‘Vergogna’ in Italian means shame—vergogna. V-E-R-G-O-G-N-A. Vergogna.” Anyway, it’s a nice thing to think about, someday being able to raise a flag above your home that tells the neighbors that you think they are disgusting and going to hell.
I can see how flags can have some significance. I just don’t see the point of celebrating that.
Yes…my neighborhood, too.
What’s with the new right wing obsession with adults behaving like children? Has Martha done anything in her life except get hitched to a future SC justice? Is this the insecurity of a person who has ridden to prominence by association with a powerful, conservative, white male?
The pledge of allegence added the words “Under God” during the cold war. take That, Commies!
Matthew 5
33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
…..
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
The pledge is now a religious oath. A forbidden oath if we take the commands of Jesus seeriously. Jesus commands, you obey!
We use to have to sing god save the Queen. Then they changed it to Advance Australia Fair, thirty something years ago. I still don’t know the words to it.
I’ve seen this also.
On a recent trip, I drove back through a rural area on secondary roads. Not often but every 5 miles or so there would be a house decorated with US flags, blue lives matter flags, and of course, Trump signs.
At least you know which places and people to avoid.
Went through a similar morning ritual at school in Australia. Every morning we would line up for the flag raising and recite
“I honour my God, I serve my Queen and I salute the flag.” I was already flirting with giving the monarchy the shove and have been a confirmed republican for a long time, (I don’t mean the mob of loons that infest US politics). Many of us soon grew sick of the ritual and began ending it with “and I shoot the flag.” Considering the fetish that some politicians and faketriots have for waving and hugging flags its probably a good idea.
At one time I flew RevWar flags – 1st Massachusetts Regt., 2nd Mass., Freeman’s Farm (the battle where Benedict Arnold kept grabbing units and smashing Burgoyne’s maneuvers), Cowpens, and yes, the Gadsden flag.
‘
I gave that up when the *^%#%^^^&%& usurped their historical significance for fascist politics. Now I usually fly flags like Vanuatu, the Sechelle Islands, Aruba, the fleur-de-lys (my favorite for Bastille Day), or the Celtic nations: Ireland, Brittany, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man.
‘
Now if only I can find one for the Witch King of Angmar….
fusilier
James 2:24
She was a law librarian, which is where they met, and a stay-at-home mother of their two children. That seems to be it.
One of my homeroom teachers in high school would get peeved if he didn’t see your lips moving during the pledge, so I just made up my own words. Don’t remember the beginning but the end part was:
“and to the Replacements, for whom I stand
one nation under a groove, undefunkable
with Metallica’s “…And Justice For All.””
The pledge was a morning ritual in elementary school during the 50s. When I got to “junior high school” (now known as “middle school”) we stopped doing that and so it was through high school, and of course, never in college. That’s probably why so many people in my generation failed to support the war in Vietnam. We just didn’t recognize how important killing people in South Asia was to our national and personal identity and the flag and the nation for which it stands.
Interestingly (?) the nation survived for almost 100 years without a pledge. The original version was written in 1885 and was significantly revised in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, which is the one we use now. Bellamy was a “Christian socialist Baptist” which seems to me, as a former Southern Baptist, a self-contradicting concept.
the flag fetish is a political dog whistle.
just wait–some right winger will try to bring back the Bellamy Salute.
it’s tradition! /s
The right loves authority. It doesn’t trust people. Democracy and unions are bad. Powerful people, powerful God should be trusted to fix everything. Nothing’s our fault.
The 2022 Ottawa Occupation, and the dummies who opposed COVID health efforts in general, have made me a lot more suspicious of vehicles with Canadian flags on them. Because a bunch of reactionary dips were using the flag as part of their involvement in that nonsense.
“I pledge a lesson to the frog of the United States of America, and to the wee puppet for witches hands. One Asian, in the vestibule, with little tea and just rice for all.”
“I pledge a legion to the flag and to the public for Richard Stands, one naked individual with liver tea and justice for all.”
“I pledge impertinence to the flag waving of unindicted co-conspirators of America and to the Republicans for which I can’t stand, one abomination, underhanded fraud, indefensible with liberty and justice, forget it.” (Matt Groenig)
https://www.deceptology.com/2012-01/how-to-fake-pledge-of-allegiance.html
also Groenig
“I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the Republicans for which they scam, one nacho, underpants, with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.”
“I ledge of a plegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republican for which in my hands. With puberty and nachos, he he, nachos for all.” – Beavis and Butthead
I edge pal-egance to the flag of the Stun-ited Ates of My Erica, and re the to-public for stitch it wands, none eaten, gunder odd, indivisible, with jiberty and lustice for all.
Denmark is festooned with Danish flags. It used to be a counterexample to the association of flag-flying and bigotry, but its Social Democrats have turned to racist dog-whistling in recent years.
Old countries without any war in living memory are generally spared this frenzy.
BTW we had a huge cultural backlash in 1945; in Sweden there had been no shortage of Hitler admirers, and the culture of venerating hierarchy that was prevalent until this time became suspect.
And in Sweden in the 1960s traditions like nationalism, flag-waving and adressing people by their titles were increasingly seen as old-fashioned and silly. Here, tradition-busting went further than in other countries.
Deep background:
Sweden did not immerse itself as deeply in feudalism as its neighbors; being economically backward preserved a bit of iron-age liberties.
Flags were mostly a thing for ships and for the royal family up until the middle of the 19th century, when ‘national romanticism,’ arrived.
The zoo at Skansen started to fly a flag at the beginning of summer at June 6th, and this became ‘the day of the Swedish flag’. This became an actual national day only in 1978.
( June 6th was retconned as the anniversary of the crowning of an important king [Gustav I].
Later it was realised this king was a tyrannical bastard, so the new justification is a boring change of the constitution June 6th 200 years ago)
The worst obstacle for the national day to get status was holiday saturation.
The biggest summer holiday is Midsummer, and June does not have room for two super-holidays!
The nationalist relic where flag-waving is OK is royal events. And football.
Flags aren’t really a thing in Australasia, we have to pit in effort to find out who the arseholes are
Third Grade and flags! Now, there’s a blast from the past! That was the year I was selected to be a member of the Safety Patrol. We got to wear white belts with a shoulder strap and a fancy gold-lined side cap imprinted with “Safety Patrol.” Nothing like a man in uniform. Our duties were to raise the American flag in the morning and take it down after school. As a keen Cub Scout I knew how to fold the flag and I think that skill earned me a “captain pin.” We also opened car doors, especially when it rained, and met the kids riding school buses. Best of all was that we got to arrive at school early and leave late! Right, makes no sense but there you have it.
Flag Day may explain why I’m hearing jet fighters outside my house.
Do you have the term “flag shaggers” in the US?
If you don’t, feel free to adopt it from us. It has proved quite useful recently.
The only place I’m aware of that gets even madder about flags than the USA is Northern Ireland.
There’s one of the greatest comedy routines ever about it. Here, let me link you to Jake O’Kane’s legendary bit on The Blame Game from 2013. About “flegs” (which is what “flag” sounds like in a Northern Ireland accent).
In the English part of the UK what a flag means partly depends on when it is flown and which flag it is. If the English football team or to a lesser extent the cricket or rugby teams are doing well in an international competition then all sorts of people will fly the English flag. If the Olympics are on you’ll see quite a lot of Union Jacks, again flown by all sorts. At other times flying either says you’re a right wing jerk, but you’re a worse jerk if you fly the English flag.
I spent a couple of terms in an American school when I was eight and found the whole pledging of allegiance really weird. I refused to lead the pledge when my turn came round, ostensibly because I wasn’t American, but actually because I didn’t know the pledge or any of the songs you were supposed to pick either. There was initial resistance from the class teacher, but she did accept my refusal in the end, and I had to take an extra turn keeping the reading books in order, which didn’t feel like a punishment and I’m not sure it was meant to be one.
@22:
Union Jack: intellectual right-wing
Saint George’s Cross: violent right-wing
USian here. The last time I was asked to pledge allegiance to my flag was a couple of decades ago, at a Boy Scout ceremony honoring my nephew. What I muttered was,
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution
of the United States of America
and to the Republic which stands upon it.
One nation, of many peoples,
seeking liberty and justice for all.
The US is where I was born, and where I will most likely die. As a citizen, it is my obligation to do my part in trying to right this behemoth of a listing ship that is my country. But I have no allegiance to a flag. A future government can establish a fascist, theocratic form of governance that makes hash of the rights established in the US Constitution, and fly the same flag.
Still, flags have uses. At our weekend and to-be-retirement house in a rural area, there is an outdoor main electrical service panel sited uncomfortably near the driveway, such that a delivery truck turning around might hit it. We have strategically placed boulders to protect it, and decided to fly a windsock on a pole so that drivers of high-cab vehicles can see it. (Wind would just wrap a flag around the pole, making it less visible.) The sun bleaches the windsock colors so I replace it every year, and I always choose one with rainbow stripes. The neighbors who fly Confederate flags (in California!) and have Trump signs on their properties can damn well live with my LGBTQ+-affirming windsock.
@Fusilier
I rather like the 35 start American flag. The flag General Sherman flew on his March To The Sea. The point being many of the stars in that flag represented the Confederate states. The Confederacy then was illegitimate.
I gag at the irony of the flag patriots who, in order to show how patriotic they are, violate the US Code of Flag Etiquette. After 9/11, the teams of the Big Sky football conference plastered the American flag on the helmets and uniforms of the players guaranteeing that Old Glory would get ground in the dirt and that the Flag would be sweaty, bloody and dirty and subsequently laundered with the players’ jock straps. Oh, and the uber patriots who unfurl a football sized flag at football games violate the code which clearly states the US Flag should never be displayed horizontally unless it is to cover the casket of some veteran or hero. Finally, the US Flag should not be worn as a cape, should not be hugged (I am looking at you, Donald Trump) or written on.
https://us-flag.net/code/
Yeah, I worked for the government for some time and at one point did the flag thing.
There are rules: https://www.pmc.gov.au/publications/australian-flags-booklet/part-2-protocols-appropriate-use-and-flying-flag/dignity-flag
Jazzlet @22
I think that you will appreciate this story. When I was teaching in a Texas high school, there was an exchange student from Spain who was placed in my Latin II class. She had a run-in with the football coach who “taught” her 2nd period PE class.
2nd period was when the entire school did the pledge to the flag. She refused to do it, since she was a citizen of another country. The coach was punishing her with laps, push-ups, etc and increasing the harassment daily, with the tacit agreement of the administration.
Finally, the young lady was switched to my 2nd period Latin II Honors class, where she actually belonged.
She was visibly relieved when she observed my reaction to pledge time.
I asked that the students stand quietly, in case an administrator peeked in the door. They had the option of saying the pledge in English or in Latin (which I had posted) or just standing quietly (thinking deep thoughts!).
I stood behind my computer and used the time to quickly mark attendance in my digital gradebook, hitting send as soon as the pledge ended. We would then quickly get on with the actual business of learning Latin.
cartomancer @ #20 — I don’t know of the term, but we have plenty of “flag shaggers”.
As a retired Air Force veteran, my husband was gifted with a US flag and an Air Force flag when he retired from reserve duty.
He enjoys flying the AF flag in September in honor of the birthdays of the AF, me, and himself. Since we have a Navy facility in town (from which he earned his PHD), most people around us fly the Navy flag or the Marine flag, especially when there are football games between the services. It gives him a chuckle to see the AF flag flying on the house.
Today, when he realized that it was flag day, he asked me whether he should fly the US flag. I reminded him that it might make us look like trump supporters, so he’s postponing it until next year, providing that trump doesn’t win.
I saw the video of her truly incredibly horrible husband, talking about the “unfortunate” need to – as peacefully as possible! – make the USA into a his-kind-of-Christian Republic.
I would’ve thrown a drink in his face if it’d been me there,
And THEN we heard from his wife!!!!
That is as petty, vicious and evil a woman as I have ever heard speak. There was literally nothing but a vitriolic hatred in here every STUPID word!
And THEN we have the fucking Thomases!!!!
How did I ever put up with anyone who said they voted “Republican”? They’ve never been other than corrupt racist since at least Reagan.
@28:
Oh the prawns! Oh the mushrooms!
If USian hug the next Jehovah Witness who knocks on your door:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Education_v._Barnette
Although I think the pandemic resulted in JWs mailing us handwritten letters instead of door to door knocking.
I merely omit “under God” if I’m ever involved in a pledge. Just like with affirmations over oaths if getting a document like an affidavit notarized. God should always be optional.
That is BTW, completely, totally illegal to force school kids to say the pledge.
There have been court cases that say you can’t force school children to say the pledge.
It was a long time ago, 80 years.
raven @34
FIRE is of course right on this one, but Lukianoff and his pal Haidt are crowd favorites over at WEIT.
https://www.thefire.org/about-us/our-team/greg-lukianoff
I wonder how many of those who fly flags to show everyone how patriotic they are also complain that liberals’ support for [whatever] cause is ‘performative.’?
Although I thought Coddling went a bit far in places and was a mixed bag FIRE does take reasonable stances on some issues:
https://www.thefire.org/news/fire-calls-florida-public-colleges-push-back-against-unconstitutional-stop-woke-act-provisions
I probably won’t read this one:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Canceling-of-the-American-Mind/Greg-Lukianoff/9781668019146
I am reading a book by Rebecca Gould called Erasing Palestine where she recounts attempts to cancel her for a quite pointed polemic Counterpunch article she wrote which was critical of Israel and had people in the UK marching out the IHRA definition of antisemitism against her.
https://jacobin.com/2023/08/israel-palestine-occupation-wall-censorship-uk-academia-antisemitism
In Germany, at least around the time when I left, you’d see flags on government buildings, and maybe the occasional weirdo’s yard, and that’s it. Your average american town has more flags than Berlin.
Well, except when it’s soccer world cup time, then all the knuckledraggers come out of their holes and us (somewhat) sane people take a spontaneous vacation in the next country over.
joelgrant @36, verily, and Matthew 6:5 is part of their scripture, too.
Well, it’s Pride Month, so I’ve got a “plain” rainbow flag (v 1.0) and a trans pride flag, flying ’em all month long. I never did “Flag Day”, but I do have Flag Occasions, including 4th of July for the US flag, Bastille Day for the Tricolore, and Armistice Day (Nov. 11) for all the Allied Nations flags. Then there are some oddball ones like the Montreal flag, which I have a really big one of, and a really large Union Jack, which goes up on Guy Fawkes day, when I remember. Sometimes the Soviet flag and Allies for V-E day. Pirate flag for children’s birthdays. Oyster flag for Oyster Day. I’m also gonna start flying the US flag on April 9, when Lee surrendered on behalf of the Confederacy to Grant. I mean, flags, they’re an ancient symbol, and can mean all kinds of things. My house, my flag system.
So, this post flags that these efforts at flagging aren’t flagging.
Got it.
(That’s what referees do, no? Flag players)
John Morales @41
Such flagrant word play. Or flag rant? You are flagellating it to death, nonetheless.
All I could think of while reading this thread: “Fun with Flags” – the long-running bit on “The Big Bang Theory”.
magistramarla @43
BBT may be a bit verboten here, but I too recall “Fun with Flags”. I haven’t watched Young Sheldon closely enough to see if there were any antecedents.
@gijoel #4:
When I was a kid I was obliged to learn five verses of ‘God Save the Queen’. Then in 1977 the Sex Pistols came up with a better version and I’ve never had to bother with the original since.
I’ve just had a skim of the Wikipedia article for the national anthem and I can’t for the life of me pick out which verses I learnt. Too many variations, most churned out for no good reason.
On the rare occasions when someone asks me why I’m not singing the national anthem (usually at a sporting international), I reply that I strongly disagree with the concepts indicated by both nouns in the title alone.
@1 billseymour :
Not here atleats not always – my family have a flagpole and fly various flags at their place including but not limited to the Aussie flag and our South Aussie one. Currently flying the Ukrainian flag to show our support for them against Putin’s invasion.
I too had to do mandatory flag pledges through my public school years. I always added a silent codicil: “Contracts made under duress are not binding.”
But the Alitos’ (first) flag scandal and ensuing fad among the MAGAts does raise an important question:
How do British, French, Algerian, Austrian, Bangladeshi, Belgian, Botswani, Chadian, Côte d’Ivorean, Cuban, Danish, Faroenese, Finnish, Georgian, Guernseyan, Guinean, Guyanese, Honduran, Icelandic, Irish, Israeli, Italian, Jamaican, Japanese, Jordanian, Kenyan, Laotian, Latvian, Malian, Nigerian, Norwegian, Palauan, Peruvian, Qatari, Romanian, and Swedish sea vessels signal “urgent distress” with their flags?
Oops at my # 47: Kindly scratch Cuban from that list, and add Swiss!
@47:
The Union Jack is not quite symmetrical, so for sure it can be flown upside-down. Surely you must agree, the difference is obvious.
(Though British ships are more likely to be flying one of the ensign forms, where the difference would be more obvious.)
xohjoh2n @ #s 49 & 50 – Blimey! Gorblimey!!
@50.xohjoh2n : Poor ensign! Seems a pretty tough duty and how do they get them to fly? Hope the pole has somgrippy bits and ain’t greased! One way to encourage them to work towards promotion to Lieutenant though! (Midshipman still a thing? Recalls reading maritime Napoleonic war era novels..)
@21,. po8crg : “About “flegs” (which is what “flag” sounds like in a Northern Ireland accent).” Sounds more like a South African accent to me.
@ 23. xohjoh2n
Here – Aussie flag = bogan, possibly racist.
Eureka flag = either pro- labour union left wing OR extreme reichwing. Confusing really.
^ For non-Aussies here that’s the Eureka stockade flag – see :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Flag
Um, StevoR, there’s an Aboriginal flag.
Also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Flag_Society says ‘yes’ to the OP..
@ ^ John Morales : Yes. There’s also the Torre’s Staright Islanders flag :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_Strait_Islander_flag
Plus we have the whole issue -now on he backburner but hopefully to be revised of hanging our flag to remove the Union Jack and symbolise a new Aussie Republic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_flag_debate
Plus
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/news/news_archive/2015/six_credible_alternatives_to_the_australian_flag
In my view ideally with a First Elder chosen by our Indigenous People rather than a President. ( Veering off flags but still – national symbols and all.. )
Thinking flags and countries Isn’t it utterly bizarre that people from one place can go to another, stick a bit of coloured cloth on a stick into the ground, utter a few magic (or not) words – in their own language(s) usually not the language(s) of those already living there – and then say they somehow own or claim or have some right to the place they’ve just done that too – sometimes an entire continent as in Australia’s example?
@56:
I’m pretty sure that a period of poking sharp things into people is required as well.
Twas Flagg! Twas Flagg! Twas Flagg!
–Stephen King, Eyes of the Dragon
Sorry, couldn’t resist.