Flag etiquette - one woman’s mission

A friend at work just emailed this to the staff at my place of employment. Although many of you might say I’m not a patriot because of my incessant criticism of our country’s leadership, I am posting this to prove you wrong. I am the most classic kind of patriot, and respect what our forefathers stood for, which is exactly the opposite of what those currently in power stand for. Respecting our heritage and the flag that stands for it is an easy way to support our troops, and to remind us what this country is really about.

[Names] and [locations] have been removed to preserve anonymity for the writer and for myself.

I’m on a mission . . . an email campaign. You don’t have to make any wishes or send this email to 3 other people within the next hour . . . just give me a moment of your time and if you agree with me then, please
forward it to others.

I work in the Journalism Department at [Major University]. I not only work in the Journalism but I actually work for the campus newspaper, the [Campus Newspaper]. I’ve been here forever and I am constantly telling the journalism students who work for the newspaper to voice their opinions . . . make a difference . . . take a stand . . . be passsionate . . . well today I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.

Bear with me I don’t write often and I realize this is a little wordy . . . I should probably have someone edit it.

OK . . . back to my mission . . . it started this past weekend . . . I was shopping at Ralphs here in [Major US City] . . . it was dusk and as I walked out of the store, I noticed 2 young women taking down our flag. They were talking and not paying much attention to
what they were doing when suddenly the manager came running out yelling at the women not to let the flag touch the ground.

Another customer went over to the girls, introduced himself as retired military personnel, and took his time to teach the girls the proper way to honor our flag.

I was busy . . . groceries to take home and put away . . . but it nagged at me all weekend.

Maybe because Memorial Day is coming up . . . memories of standing at attention in the cementary as a girl scout honoring those men and women who have given their lives for our country.

Being taught that our flag stands for the ultimate sacrifice they have given and when honoring our flag we honor them.

For the next couple of days I looked around and noticed that there really aren’t a lot of businesses that display the American flag . . . Ralphs Center, Vons Center, [Area Apartment Building] and of course the [Major University] campus.

So you can imagine my dismay as I’m on my way to work today, getting ready to pull into the parking lot and right in front of the Facilities Management offices is the flagpole . . . with our American flag hanging there limply touching the ground.

I was so upset . . . maybe I sound like a loon to you . . . it’s just a piece of cloth you say.

I beg to differ . . . it’s a testament to our freedoms . . . it’s a way of honoring our military and their families for that ultimate sacrifice.

I’m not on patriotic overload . . . I don’t care if you don’t display our flag in front of your business, on your lawn, hanging from a
flagpole anywhere . . . but if you do . . . it should be respected and honored.

I talked to the manager of the Ralphs store where she told me it’s hard to get some people to understand the reverence the flag should be afforded. One girl when assigned the duty of taking down the flag actually draped it around her neck as she walked back into the store?

I talked to Sergeant [Police Woman] here at [Major University] this morning about the flag touching the ground and reminded her that it now needs to be burned.

Today as I sit here I think of the sons and daughters fighting and dying in Iraq for the priviledges we so take for granted and I ask, is it such a big deal to honor our flag?

Shouldn’t we take the time to learn what our flag means and how to take care of it.

The community we live in a large community with girl scout troops, boy scout troops, firemen, policemen and military bases all around us . . . I think probably some organization would be more than happy to teach businesses the proper care and handling of our flag.

If you can’t take the time for the training or don’t have the staff to do the job then maybe you shouldn’t really be displaying our flag.