I definitely second the idea of asking him if he needs help. The lines could be hopelessly knotted and he can’t get it down.
A slight tangent, and a true story: A gay friend of mine, Gary, was once talking on the phone to his (more than slightly ditzy) mom, who ended the conversation by saying, “By the way, I hope your holiday tomorrow is fun.”
Gary was puzzled. “What holiday, Mom?”
She said, “You know - Fag Day!”
He gently corrected her (I almost wrote, “set her straight”). It was Flag Day.
This isn’t intended to be sarcastic, but why do you actually care about a flag so much?
For some reason, this really pisses me off. I understand your sentiment and have no problem with how you fly your flag. I think your ideas behind it are lovely, but it seems like you harbor some impression that you’re still following flag code when you aren’t. Maybe saying that I’m pissed off isn’t really accurate, more of a general “why would someone say something that’s so obviously untrue?” type feeling.
As to the OP, if you want to donate the flag to Scouts (Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts…girls do cool things too!), your best bet would probably be to donate it to a Scout camp to retire it. They generally have a couple of flag retirements a summer, both from flags that the council flies and from ones donated from the community. If you want, I can also retire it for you. I second other people’s suggestions of bringing over a new flag for your neighbor.
Because it represents the country. This “care” takes different shapes in different countries: in the US it’s “OK” to burn the flag and to wear it on your ass; in Spain neither is “OK”, but in any case it’s like asking why do you care about your president or your embassy. I didn’t vote for ZP but one of the reasons I hate it when he behaves like an ass is that he’s the ass that currently represents us…
In all seriousness, why bother? Why not just throw it out in the garbage like any other broken item? Why on earth would you need a ceremony?
I say find you some VFW goons buy’em a 12pack and a bottle of whiskey and tell them in no uncertain terms (After they’re good and drunk). that you’ve got a Commie bastard of a neighbor that thinks he can get away with showing a flag that’s been crapped on.
Then afterwords break out the lawn chair and enjoy the show.
I had a little more concern about how flags were disposed of before people started treating flag treatment (or lack thereof) as treasonous or unpatriotic. Yes, it represents the U.S. symbolically, but it represents both the good and bad; it is not something to be worshipped or revered. It’s a flag. My BIL, The Idiot, seems to think that all Middle Easterners in the US would be proving something to us if they flew US flags. :rolleyes: The flag itself is meaningless with regard to patriotism.
Hm, I wonder if this would be an appropriate thing to do for the elementary school near where I used to live, whose Quebec flag is in absolute tatters at this point. I’m serious, at least two whole cantons are just gone.
Here in LA the fire dept. will dispose of the flag correctly for you.
I don’t care if you just want to think of it as a piece of cloth but for those of us who do thnk of it as a flag, proper care is just being respectful. As is taking the flag down when it gets tattered. I personally hope people take respectful care of me when I get tattered…
Both tradition and US Code (Title 4, Section 1, Chapter 8, Subsection k) suggest respectfully burning the flag when it is tattered and no longer fit to be flown as a proper means of disposal. There’s no real reason other than respecting a symbol of the United States not to just throw it out in the garbage.
As far as having a “ceremony”, I guess I just used that particular word because it’s what I’m most used to when discussing flag retirement (not a great reason to use a word, I know). At Scout camp, our flag retirement ceremonies were always pretty simple, not a lot of pomp and circumstance. At an all-camp camp fire, if there was a flag to be retired, we would all stand, say the Pledge of Allegiance one last time to that flag, someone might say a few informative words about what the different colors/number of stripes/whatever on the flag means, and then the flag would be placed on the fire to be burnt. The next day, the grommets would be fished out of the ashes and presented to people who had made a positive impact on the camp.
My body will be treated as you would treat the flag. It’ll be burned. 
Will you be quartered first? :eek:
Prolly. I’m donating my body to the Anatomical Gift Society. (double :eek: )
What is this US Code of which you speak? Is it some military thing? Are civilians expected to abide by it?
It’s a suggestion that some folks in government would like to see as The Law Of The Land. However, it would be unenforceable and also infringes on freedom of expression.
Damn the Star Spangled Banner! Between that and the whole Betsy Ross thing, people have lost sight of what a flag actually is.
I’m bothered by government mandates telling individuals to show and how to show respect or reverence for anything, be it a flag or the nation itself. The decision to feel reverence and the decision to show that reverence is something that the government should have no business doing.
Well, without getting too political here, but:
My dad was in the navy
My Grandpa was in the Army Air Force
My FIL was in the Army Air Force
My uncle was in the Marines
I have a cousin in the Navy
…
I could go on and on about how many friends and family I have in the military. I know that to each one of them, the flag symbolizes the embodiment of the good things about this country, regardless of who’s currently driving. I have military friends and relations who hated Clinton, but still wanted to see t he flag treated properly. I know there are plenty who feel a similar way about GWB.
Personally, while I am ashamed of some of the things done in the name of the USA both now and in the past, I still think it’s a great country and I think if you’re going to the trouble of flying a flag (and thus showing your support for the country, supposedly, instead of just decorating your house), that it should be in a respectful manner.
Hopefully that answers your question.
And my neighbor sent over the lasagna in a disposable container, so no excuse for a return trip other than a thank you.
They are really nice folks, and I don’t want them to think I’m judging them in any way, because I am not. I’d just like to see the flag retired and replaced.
The U.S. Code is the statutory law of the United States (laws enacted by Congress and signed by the president). All federal statutes are collected in it. It’s not specific to the military. The Flag Code is enacted as a provision of the U.S. Code (apparently 4 U.S.C. Sec. 1).
In my view, it’s very likely that this provision would be found unconstitutional if someone tried to enforce it. The trick to keeping it in the U.S.C. is, apparently, not enforcing it.
But that’s the thing. The flag code is law, but there’s no penalties for violations of it, so it’s unenforceable anyhow. There’s no need to take it to court.