Displaying Your Flag

I took an early walk through my neighborhood the other day … and the majority of the US flags I saw were displayed improperly.

This is NOT hard. Unfortunately, people just don’t think about what they are doing.

Here is how a flag on your home should look:

Unfortunately, here are examples of bad flag displays that I saw. Again, the the majority of homes displaying a flag were doing so improperly.

Please trim the tree, or move the flag. When I took this picture it was dead calm, so the flag had blown into the tree many hours – or days – ago.

This is the saddest image I snapped this morning. The dragonfly flag supersedes the US flag in this display.

Sun-faded and fouled, this flag needs replacement.

I’m not a big fan of lawn art … but if you’re going to put a small flag into your lawn, remove it before the flag gets ripped like ths one.

The pole is just sad … the flag is faded and beginning to rip. Time for the whole assembly to be retired.

Snagged.

Sun-faded. No longer red, white and blue.

Again, not a fan of lawn art … but if you’re going to display the flag on a bracket in front of the shrubbery, then retire it when it becomes sun-faded.

Fouled. Horribly fouled, in fact.

Sun-faded, tattered … still in place after the flag displayed to the right had been removed. Both should have been retired!

Fouled.

This display looks OK … but the flag is directly over a sidewalk, so every pedestrian has to either duck, move the flag with their hands, or just walk through it. Unacceptable.

The flag is so new you can see the original folds in the flag. More annoying to me, however, is the owner didn’t remove the rectangular label in the top corner of the flag, making it look like our 51st state got a rectangle, not a star.

Fouled.

Fouled.

Please, if you choose to display the US flag, follow these simple rules:

1. Only display flags that represent our country well. Tattered, sun-faded or soiled flags should be retired.

2. Flags should be allowed to fly freely. If the wind fouls them against trees or the roof, then the location is poor. If the flag is wrapped around itself, it needs to be unfurled.

3. Flags flown in the dark should be “properly illuminated” (that’s what the US Flag code says).

4. Only water-resistant flags should fly in inclement weather.

More

Congressional Research Service

US Flag Code

US Flag: Common Display Mistakes

US Flag: The First

US Flag: The Second

US Flag: The Third

US Flag: The Snake Flags