This is actually a serious question, folks. What with all the emotion on the issue of “flag desecration” and “flag worship,” I’ve found myself wondering if there is really any need to have a national flag. What real purpose does a flag serve today? Merriam-Webster defines flag as:
There are more symbols of a nation than just a paritucular pattern of cloth. For example, there’s the Great Seal of the United States. Why, then, is it that only the flag gets the veneration? Today’s technology really seems to negate the former use of flags to identify which unit belongs to which army on the battlefield, so that seems to me to negate the 2nd part of that definition above.
Also, I think I can safely make the comparison of flag veneration to cross veneration: not all Christian denominations display crosses (mine, for example, doesn’t but there are others) but that has not lessened the dedication of their members to the Lord or to the church. No longer making use of a national flag would be no different.
How about we, as a nation, just opt out of the whole “flag waving” syndrome? What would it hurt? What would it accomplish? What would the politicians do if there were no longer flags?
Politicians would find another symbol to venerate.
Do you think if we suddenly eliminated bandanas, that gang members wouldn’t find something else with which to identify themselves? It’s the same thing.
Eliminating the object does not eliminate the concept.
I suggest starting by passing a law making it illegal to desecrate the US Constitution, then holding a vote on making it illegal to desecrate the US flag. Everyone who votes in the affirmative on the second vote will then be prosecuted under the preceding vote.
Actually, the flag burners need politicians to decry that act. If flag burning was ignored, no one would do it. So, it’s a self-perpetuating feedback loop.
Tomndebb: You’ve never heard my comment, then, about tradition? “It used to be traditional to sacrifice the first-born.” That one doesn’t bother me 'cause I’m not the first-born in my family!
In our country’s case, the only reason we had a flag in the beginning was to identify our merchant and military ships at sea. None of our armies used it in battle until later. Flag veneration as a “tradition” didn’t seriously begin until the 1890s and wasn’t full fledged until people decided we needed some special traditions and hurdles for all the uncouth immigrants everyone was so scared of.
The earliest Continental regiments carried the proto-American flag from 1777 on. The Continental Navy flew the ‘Don’t tred on me’ flag.I assure you that the American flag was carried by Union forces during the Civil War.
Where do you get, “the only reason we had a flag in the beginning was to identify our merchant and military ships at sea” from?
The Betsy Rose is supposed to be the oldest version of that, 1776. But there were many earlier forms of national flag carried in battle, besides regimental standards.
I think what Tevya-n-debb was trying to express was that there’s an invaluable emotionality attached to the flag as a symbol simply because there always has been. There’s a safety, a purpose, it helps our world make sense.
Too many people have had stuff drilled into their heads like “My daddy died in Korea defending the flag!” (as if it were the Korean flag they are talking about, but that’s another debate).