There is a livestream of Hurricane Florence with the camera aimed at a flag that’s progressively getting SHREDDED by the wind (!), and honestly, if that ain’t some pretty good symbolism for how U.S. policy is affecting climate change, idk
The flag is supposed to be taken down in inclement weather.
The degree to which Americans are so precious about the flag yet routinely treat it like garbage (and ignore protocol) is a constant source of fascination.
I’d like to believe the lighthouse operators know exactly what they’re doing.
The flag code only exists to give the people who ritually spit on what it stands for something to be horrified about to prove how “American” they are
Indeed, the code is really just a collection of etiquette suggestions without penalty for violation. Penalties are defined but have never been enforced. Nobody has ever been prosecuted for flag desecration.
In fact, SCOTUS reaffirmed your right to desecrate the Flag in 1990. Your first amendment right to protest trumps anyone’s feelings about Old Glory.
The only law that DOES exist is The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which protects your right to display the American flag on your property, regardless of
your landlord’s wishes or HOA rules.
Though the FtDtAFA 2005 does carry an amusing “within reasonable limitations” clause that prohibits you from (say) mounting a 60×60 foot flag outside your condo then setting it ablaze.
Also, this is a bed and breakfast (yes, really) on an old Coast Guard platform 34 miles off the coast. The owners are not present–it is currently unmanned, and the flag flies there constantly. They acknowledge that taking it down when they left might have been better, and they plan to replace it immediately once danger is past. They will donate the flag to an organization for fund-raising, I believe they’ve settled on the Red Cross.
Anyways, as always, since I am a veteran with deployments, I did not serve a piece of cloth on a steel stick. The flag is only valuable as a representative of its people; it is a symbol that should never be separated from its substance. I really liked reading people’s take on the image of the flag torn by the hurricane, and their views on the flag and the Code up there, so thanks, guys!