Treat the US Flag the Way It Should Be Treated

Now, I have a lot of problems with my country's government. I feel like there is a strong possibility that the ideals on which my country was founded were never seriously considered by the Founding Fathers as the reasons for founding the country. However, I still believe in these values and feel the American flag will one day come to represent them again.

However, many in America believe the US flag represents the greatness of America, regardless of its flaws. They view displaying the American flag as a positive thing that they do with pride. The catch is most people have no frigging clue that there are rules for displaying the American flag and technically it can be a crime if you display it incorrectly.

I recently stumbled across [http://www.metaphoria.us/FlagPatriotism/Flag_Patriotism.html|this page] at http://www.metaphoria.us that details one webmaster's discontent with the way many so-called "patriots" display the flag. He has a great series of photos that show off just how lacking of respect many have for the flag by wearing it as clothing (even thongs), plastering it on pins, posters, and plenty of other things (including coffins!) and even [http://www.metaphoria.us/FlagPatriotism/911_flag_dessecration.jpg|defacing it in the name of 911]. Check out this guy's main page (http://www.metaphoria.org/)--people say I'm angry--I've got nothing on this guy. Not that I blame him, of course.

Kid Rock: NOT a patriot!

But back to the topic, the American flag is not some cheap logo dreamed up by some advertising executive. If you consider yourself a patriot, the absolutely last thing you should do is wear it emblazoned on a T-shirt, or as a jacket or, non-existent-God-forbid, a track suit.

In my opinion, there's a big difference between desecrating the flag and using red and white stripes and stars against a blue background as a motif in clothing, but it doesn't take a fashion critic to tell when the latter still counts as peeing on the flag.

To clear up any questions you might have, I managed to find [http://suvcw.org/flag.htm|the federal law governing the display and handling of the American flag] at http://suvcw.org which is the website for the Sons of Union Veteran of the Civil War. The only catch is that the law is long and really boring to read. So, I'll pass on my training as a high school student in Junior ROTC.

We were taught that you treat the American flag like a person. Give it the same respect you would want given to you. On top of that, don't let it touch bare skin, the ground and always fold it in a triangle. [http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html|Here is another page] I found detailing proper display and handling of the American flag--from which I found the animated flag image below that describes exactly how to fold the American flag. Check it out:

Text instructions can be found [http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/patriotic/foldflag.asp|here] at Grunt.com.

Using the American flag as packaging for your sweaty, hairy penis: not considered patriotic.

Another thing we were tought in ROTC was that you shouldn't mutilate the flag in order to make it into some sort of piece of clothing. You CAN wear it on your person as a patch on your sleeve, say. Just make sure it's oriented so that it looks like it's flying in the wind. So, if you want to wear the patch on your right shoulder you have to orient it so the blue rectangle is to the right. It may look odd, but to anyone who knows what they're doing it would look odd on your right shoulder with the blue toward the left.

You also should never drape a flag around you like a cape or blanket. Lying on a beach towel made to look like the US flag would have gotten us kicked out of the corps, I bet.

I'm not saying that anyone who violates these rules should be arrested or even fined. I just think they should clean up their act or be called out as the posers they are. Either you love your country or you don't. In my opinion, you shouldn't "love it in your own way."

Remember what respect means and show it to the thing you believe in.

Yep, that's old George W. Bush actually writing on the US flag. You get one guess as to whether or not that is considered desecration by most real patriots. Don't worry, Clinton did it, too--but that doesn't make it any less wrong.

Oh yeah and the proper way to dispose of a flag that has faded or become torn due to storm or invading Hessians?

You're going to laugh!!

The proper way to dispose of a flag is... burning.

So, all you people who think burning the US flag is some grand sign of dissent against America? All you're doing is showing our flag the respect it deserves.

OH yeah and another thing we learned in ROTC is that when you display the flag upside-down, it means "country under distress." Read more about this [http://www.jeffhead.com/liberty/flagdistress.htm|here] at JeffHead.Com.

So, really, the flag should have been displayed upside-down ever since Bush moved into the White House.

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!