I decided to display a US flag in my office. After attaching old glory to the cubicle wall a fellow cubicle drone informed me that it was desecration to use push pins, even red, white and blue ones. The flag code on the Americal Legion site says that it’s fine to display a flag on a wall but makes no mention of how to attach it since there are only eyelets on the short edge.
I cannot fathom why anyone can find it wrong to use pushpins to hold the flag up. This and the watermelon thread just go to show you we are totally surrounded by morons who love to play “gotcha!” and will find offense and impropriety in anything. With these people you can’t win. No matter what you do it’s wrong. Just ignore him.
Perhaps your coworker wouldn’t object if you put red, white and blue pushpins into him?
I can’t remember anything from my old Boy Scout days that said you couldn’t hang a flag with pushpins. If you’re in an appeasing mood, you can put up the flag so it hangs “down”, with the stripes going down and the blue field on the right. That way, you can put the pins through the part of the flag you’d normally use to attach it to the flag pole.
Padeye’s got it wrong! If you hang it “down” the blue field go to the LEFT of the observer.
Padeye’s got it wrong! If you hang it “down” the blue field go to the LEFT of the observer.
I meant ATTGuy got it wrong, not Padeye. In any case if you hang it “down” the blue field still goes to the LEFT of the observer.
And sorry about the double post above… not my fault… the 'net is choking or something.
D’oh! I didn’t do a very good job, did I? Here it is from the Americal Legion:
“When displaying the flag against a wall, vertically or horizontally, the flag’s union (stars) should be at the top, to the flag’s own right, and to the observer’s left.”
You’d think I’ve learned a valuable lesson about checking my facts, but I probably havent. 
's okay stuyguy, I make mistakes like that too. Glad I checked the A.L. site or I would have hung it vertically the wrong way. The union always goes on the upper left when hung on a wall. http://www.legion.org/flagcode.htm I’m on my way to the supply closet for some red and blue push pins.
While we’re on the subject of flags, thought you might want to know…
A few years back I was creating a banner for a museum display, using an American flag motif. I needed white and red fabric, so I went to a shop where they make US and other flags, as well as custom banners and such.
There was a rainbow of colors to choose from, so I picked a nice, cheery, fire-engine red. The guy who runs the shop then said, “You know, that’s Canadian [Flag] Red. What you want is ‘Old Glory Red’.” Then he pulls out a bolt of surprisingly dark OGR fabric.
Who knew there was a special red for US flags vs. Canadian flags? Or that it actually had a trade name? Or that it’s so dark when you look at it without the white and blue?
Postscript: I liked the Canadian red better, so I used that. (Shhh… don’t tell anyone… I don’t want to upset the flag police.)
Oh, oh… and one more thing… The red, white and blue fields on the French flag are not exactly the same width, but – due to an optical illusion – appear to be. If they made them the same width, the fields would look unequal.
I did a little research on the Flag Code for another thread a few weeks back. One thing I learned is that the Code doesn’t really apply to civilian/civilian entities (You can burn the Flag for chrissakes). Well I guess it applies, it’s just that you should abide by the code, but no one will make you. Push pins are not desecration, as the spirit of the code is clearly being met. Moot anyway for the above reasons. As I interpret the code, you can use all the push pins you want, no flag police will come a knockin. The code is strictly adhered to where I work, and I suspect all other Gov’t agencies as well.
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It was nice knowing you stuyguy. I hear the flag prison doesn’t even have internet access. Pity.
They’ll never catch me… I’m gonna sneak up to Canada where the flags are cheery.
Now where’s that other thread…?