I put the American Flag out in front of the house on holidays and September 11th.
It’s a 3’ x 5’ flag on a 6’ pole attached near the front door. I don’t fly it every day for several reasons.
It doesn’t have as much impact if it’s there all the time. People just wouldn’t notice it.
Not having a light shining on it, I must put it out in the morning and take it in at night. I would either be inconsistant by not flying it every day or disrespectful by forgetting to bring it in at night.
Chicago weather is tough on flags.
No one on my block flew the flag till I started flying mine. Now when I put mine out 2 neighbors across the street do the same. One actually thanked me for being her “reminder”. Cool.
So how about you. Do you fly the flag? If not, why?
If this post inspired you to fly a flag, I thank you. And my father thanks you too. He was a Medic in WWII.
You call it showy, I call it pride. You see, I never had the opportunity to fly the flag before because I always lived in apartments where it was either not allowed or just impractical. Now that I own a home I am able to fly the flag and I do so proudly.
Nope. Having been around the world quite a bit, the only country that I’ve seen have as many flags per capita as the US is North Korea.
The whole USA! USA! USA! thing along with flags everywhere (stores, t-shirts, bumper stickers etc) just strikes me as somewhat scary nationalism. You’d never see normal, middle-of-the-road people flying the UK or German flags in those countries.
I have a flag in my window - I put it up for Independence Day 2 years ago and forgot to take it down. By this point removing it would be making a statement I’m not interested to make, which is too bad, since it’s starting to look a little ratty.
I have a 3x5 all weather flag with a six foot pole attached to the front of my house. It is lit at night. I bring it in when it is raining or when it is really windy, other than that it is flying.
From a patriotic standpoint, I fly it for my own family’s satisfaction rather than to express myself to others. Even if my house could not be viewed from the road, I would display it, I even considered putting it in my backyard. At the risk of sounding a bit cheesey, I like to step out of my house every morning and see it waving, I am happy for the opportunities and freedoms this country has presented to me and my family, it is a bit inspirational. Along these lines, I also display it for my kids, as a reminder to not take things for granted and to think about how they can be a contributor to society.
From a decorative standpoint, the colors and movement looks really cool with my house’s color, lighting, and landscaping! My house kinda looks naked without it.
We used to put up a flag on all national holidays, but when we replaced our porch railings and the new ones didn’t have the bracket to hold the flag pole, we stopped. The flag remains rolled up around its pole, in the box, in the coat closet. It’s been at least 25 years, mind you, since we used it.
I felt badly about it until 9/11 and its aftermath and the beginnings of the war in Iraq. Even though at the time I was pro-Iraq invasion, the proliferation of flags everywhere, including car antennas and bumper stickers and clingfilms on windows felt weird and aggressive to me. As my political ideals spread leftward, the more twitchy 24/7 flag displays by private citizens make me. Holidays I’m less bothered by, though. That’s a different thing. (Except Columbus Day, but that’s another rant for another thread.)
I don’t fly a flag, I have a badge of the St George Cross (I’m English, see?) which I wear on my jacket all the time. I started off just wearing it around St George’s Day, but then I decided to just keep it on.
Australia is just as bad over the last few years. I often see houses in my area with an Australian flag in the front yard. 10 years ago that would be very rare.
The flag wavers are usually loud, ignorant, bigoted types advertising themselves with a sticker on their car that says something along the lines of Australia… Love it or f**k off. Nice people.
Desert Nomad, clearly you’ve never been to Turkey.
Peanuthead, I got into a fight about this awhile ago here and I really don’t feel like repeating that experience, but suffice to say that “pride” is not really the word that I would use with regard to being an American. I love my country, very much, but I would not say that I am proud to be an American, because it’s not something I accomplished. I was born that way. In my mind, it’s like being proud of being white, or having straight hair. I can’t help it, that’s just how I am. I am proud of my actual accomplishments, challenging things that I undertook and succeeded at.
Obviously, YMMV and I am pretty clearly in the minority view on this point, but I don’t understand the mindset of being proud of something you had no control over. (If you’re a naturalized citizen, that’s different - beating the idiots in immigration is definitely an accomplishment to be proud of!)
Yes, but mostly only on holidays or on nice summer days when I’m going to be outside to see it. I wouldn’t enjoy it as much if it became a routine. I also have a few other flags, but I only fly one at a time.
I put out a flag on most national holidays. I didn’t put one out yesterday for Columbus Day, partly because I forgot it was a national holiday until late in the afternoon when I realized there was no mail delivery. I hadn’t thought of Sept 11 anniversaries, but I could do that too.
I do it because that’s what my father did when I was a kid. It’s a tradtion.
The only flag we’ve ever flown was one my mom used to put out that had hummingbirds and flowers on it.
I think maybe someday it would be nice to fly the real flag, but it also seems like a lot of work. To do it right you have to constantly put it up and down, unfolding and folding it right, taking it down in bad weather, not to mention the music that would sometimes be necessary, etc, etc. I like our country just fine, but don’t think I need to fly a flag to prove it. I already pay my taxes, what more do they want?
When I lived in Georgia, on my way to school I would pass by this small baptist church that was always flying a confederate flag.:eek:
Most national holidays, and other days like the past election and inauguraton days.
Didn’t fly it after 9/11 as I despised what I considered mostly empty jingoism, and especially did not fly it after we invaded Iraq and through the rest of W’s terms.
I don’t fly a flag, because I’m not patriotic. My across-the-street neighbors recently put one up, and I see it quite clearly through my front window. I’m “covered”, right?
My dad flys a flag and I’m sort of glad he does. He’s a Vietnam vet and I’m glad he still likes his country after what they sent him to do.
Actually, I have been to Turkey about a dozen times and while you see a lot of Turkish flags in markets and on public roads (usually a bunch of small flags all tied to the same line), it is not as common to see them flying from private homes as it is in the US in my experience. Several Middle Eastern countries are like this too.
It certainly didn’t have the same feel/connotation that the US and North Korea displays had.
I was in Singapore on national day (August 9), and there are many, many private flags hung from apartment high-rise balconies, but only on that day… not like the US.
I never fly a flag and never would. I’m not that into displaying my interests for the public to notice.
I recently moved from Pennsylvania, where I lived for two years next to a house that was usually empty but sometimes occupied by members of a hunting club. Usually, when any of the members would show up there for their vacations, the first thing they did was put up an American flag. I always thought that was kind of weird, like they might forget what country they were in if they didn’t have a flag or something.
A lot of my neighbors where I live now fly American flags all the time. That seems kind of silly to me, too, but I don’t really care. A lot of them also fly flags that say Ravens or Steelers. Whatever.
One of my neighbors has a bumper sticker that says something like: I’m thankful to the vets that made the U.S. number one. I’m tempted to ask him what the U.S. is number one in, exactly, but it seems like a bad idea to ask.
