Are you ready for June 14th? It’s Flag Day in the US, and boy have flags been in the news in the weeks leading up to this patriotic observance. Whether or not it’s Flag Day, Americans should know something about the flag which has represented our nation since the late 1770s and the controversial way in which a sitting US Supreme Court justice had one flying at his residence. Let’s run this topic up the flagpole and see whether we like what we learn.
Flag Basics
Can you describe Old Glory, a familiar nickname for the US flag? Most can correctly indicate it’s rectangular, bears stars, has stripes, and contains the colors red, white, and blue. But there’s more to know.
The blue upper lefthand corner where stars can be found is referred to as the union. (I confess, I didn’t know that.) This designation makes sense because fifty white, five-pointed stars appear there. This number, of course, corresponds to the number of states in the union. Thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, represent the thirteen original colonies.
Flag History
The flag American citizens fly today isn’t the same one that flew in our Founding Fathers’ day. In fact, we have our first president to thank for the US having a flag. Historians believe a handful of members of the Continental Congress, including George Washington, visited seamstress Betsy Ross to enlist her assistance in making their proposed flag design come to life.
Our country’s first flag gave a nod to the thirteen colonies in the union. But that initial flag has been modified twenty-six times since its creation. The union’s field of stars expanded with the addition of new states. By 1912 the number of stars had grown to forty-eight. The current version of the flag has existed since August 1959 when Hawaii became the 50th state. (Aloha, Hawaii!) It’s also the version with the longest use.
How To Handle The Flag
Don’t know exactly what to do with a flag? No worries. Federal law provides detailed advisory rules in the US Flag Code. (You know there has to be a law for everything, flags included!) These rules can be found in the US Code (4 USC Chapter 1) and accessed online.
While the Flag Code goes on for pages, here are a couple of tips from it to remember. Flags should be raised “briskly.” (So be energetic while hoisting.) When a flag reaches a condition where it’s no longer suitable for display, it should be destroyed in a “dignified way.” The preferred method is burning. Boy Scout troops can burn flags for you in the correct manner if you don’t want to do so yourself.
Upside Down Display
When flying your flag, make sure the union portion is pointing up. (Pop quiz! What portion of the flag is that?) According to the flag code, out of respect the US flag shouldn’t be displayed upside down (with the union down) “except as a signal of dire distress in instances of danger to life or property.” (4 USC 1 Section 8a) Is it illegal to do so? Well, no, because the US Flag Code is advisory, using “should” language, and provides no sanctions for violation.
Why would someone fly a flag upside down? The practice was traditionally used by sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries to signal their vessel was in dire straits. (That’s the figurative dire straits of big trouble and not the popular English rock band, Dire Straits.) This use of the flag allowed communication prior to the availability of radio (“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”).
But landlubbers use an upside down flag as well. Displaying a US flag upside down has come to be a symbol used in peaceful protests, generally implying the nation is in trouble. For example, the Stars and Stripes have been displayed this way in protests against slavery in 1854, protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, civil rights movement protests in the 1960s, current day Black Lives Matter protests, demonstrations by environmental activists over climate change, and the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol.
Politics And The Upside Down Flag
To no one’s surprise (especially mine), the flag has become more of a political symbol than a symbol of patriotism. A big reason is that use of the flag is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.
How far does this protection go? The landmark 1989 US Supreme Court case of Texas v. Johnson upheld Mr. Johnson’s right to burn an American flag as protected political speech under the First Amendment. (If you can go to the extreme of burning a flag, displaying one upside down seems tame by comparison.) A public uproar arose over this decision, especially since Mr. Johnson was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade at the time.
The current political uproar involves a US flag flown upside down outside the Alexandria, Virginia house of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The New York Times published photo evidence of the January 2021 scene.
Why does this matter now, some three years later? Critics claim the upside down flag was in reference to the “Stop The Steal Movement” related to the 2020 presidential election. With several high-profile cases pending before the high court now relating to that election and the storming of the US Capitol, some have urged Alito to “recuse” himself (fancy legal word meaning take himself off the case and not participate in the decision) from these cases.
Who knows how this matter will play out? In the meantime, I will proudly fly the Stars and Stripes on June14th, taking note of what its elements represent, and appreciating its history and modifications. Let freedom fly in the form of our flag!
WONDER-ing Woman:
Do you own an American flag? How often do you fly it? How do you feel when you see the flag being flown or carried upside down?
WONDER-ing WOMAN -- Alice H. Murray 