I attended a conference on Saturday where I was offended by two points. Most people reading this article will consider these points to be trivial. I do not.
1. A Tea Party leader wore a shirt that was the flag of the United States.
2. The organizers of the event wanted to pledge allegiance to the flag but had forgotten to bring one. The solution was to pledge allegiance to the shirt flag.
I understand that most people in our country do not respect our flag. Like Bonhoeffer’s concept of cheap grace, we offer a small token of esteem to our flag without acknowledging the sacrifices it truly represents.
But in my mind, I do not look at the flag as representing an indivisible nation. I see the principles embodied by our founding fathers to bring together our disparate states into a compact under a Constitution. I see the blood and treasure of our sons and daughters who sacrificed to give us Liberty. I see a symbol of our declaration to hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. I see everything that I miss in America today.
David DeGerolamo
§176. Respect for flag
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 speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
