# Stars and Stripes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434 "2003-08-29T15:17:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/21 "2003-08-29T23:01:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phage \* > I would think that reverence for one’s flag would be universally understood. The flag, even before the Civil War, was considered a symbol representing the people who rallied behind it. "Let’s rally 'round the flag, boys. Rally 'round the flag and raise the battle cry of Freedom. Rally 'round the flag, boys. Rally 'round the flag and raise the battle cry of Freedom. The Union forever! Hurrah! Boys, hurrah! Down with the traitor, and up with the star. And we’ll rally 'round the flag, boys. Rally 'round the flag and raise the battle cry of Freedom" What did we have to visibly unite us? We didn’t have centuries or millenia of settlement. We didn’t all have _una raza, una facia_ (one race, one face). What we had were the symbols we consciously adopted. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/22 "2003-08-29T23:30:27Z")
I love my country. I was born here, and I wouldn’t choose to leave. I’m often puzzled, though by all the flag-waving since Sept. 11, 2001. People said they were doing it to show solidarity for the folks affected by the terrorist massacres, as if those folks could see Indiana from there. Now that the war has taken a huge crowd of our young away to Iraq, people fly little flags from their cars “to show support for the troops.” Do they think the soldiers can see that far? I support the troops, and I have my tax forms to prove it. I don’t need a tattered scrap of red, white, and blue on my truck to prove it to my neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/23 "2003-08-29T23:57:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spogga \* > \*\*Believe me I would not fly the CSA flag in the hope of re-introducing slavery, I would fly it just to be _ornery_ as you Americans say or as we English say _Just to be frigging awkward_ \*\* The CSA flag made a huge comeback during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. In many respects, it was flown to tell blacks to stay in their place or else. Not everyone meant that by the flag, but large numbers of people who flew the flag had that in mind. Are you trying to be “ornery” or “racist”? It seems you are merely looking for shock value. This is a pretty loaded symbol you have chosen. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/24 "2003-08-30T00:18:23Z")
Yeah, it’s like the Sex Pistols selling shirts with swastikas on them. I don’t get it at all. They’re willing to put THAT symbol on their shirts, just to be shocking? This outweighs the idea that they don’t believe a word of Nazi ideas? I wouldn’t do it, personally. It’s just inescapable, dude. Only very rarely has the Confederate battle flag meant anything but “blacks need not to get uppity and demand things like human rights.” ---
**Author:** ![hyjyljyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/25 "2003-08-30T00:18:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alessan \* > \*\*You see a lot of flags around here, too, although we don’t talk about them as much as Americans do ("Honor Old Glory! Don’t let the flag touch the ground! Sheesh… get over yourselves). It’s especially prominent around Israeli Independence Day - this April-May, I’d say around 70% of all cars on the road had a little plastic flag attached to the window or wheel wells. > > That we may be offending someone actually makes us kind of proud. \*\* This is by far the funniest post I have ever read on this site, Alessan. Thank you for the laugh: an Israeli, telling US to get over ourselves! At least we don’t walk around with our noses in the air, expecting the rest of the world to just accept that we and we alone are “God’s chosen people”. “Get over yourselves,” indeed. As if God would look down from Heaven upon all the beauty of His creation and choose that pitiful, barren, tiny little pile of rocks as His “holy land”, and choose only those few who call themselves Jews as “His” people. (What are the rest of us poor schlubs, chopped liver already?!) That attitude, perfectly exemplified by the final statement about being proud of offending others (the incredible irony of which is no doubt lost on its author) might best be examined before the **next** group of maniacal persecutors comes along…if the good ol’ flag-waving “nationalistic” USA can finish curtailing the current one, that is. Peace on Earth ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/26 "2003-08-30T00:39:12Z")
Well, at this point, this thread could end up in any one of four forums. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434/27 "2003-08-30T01:40:10Z")
The factual question has long since been answered, so I’ll close this thread. Let’s all try to remember the forum descriptions. Rants still belong in the BBQ Pit, and debates still belong in GD. bibliophage moderator GQ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-and-stripes/198434.md?page=1)