As Americans , it might be healthy for us to admit that we , the citizenry , are perhaps unnaturally attach to our country ’s flagstone .
Not that that ’s a spoilt affair necessarily . Yeah , we dig our flag . We admit it . We love to see the red , white and blue fluttering against the gold waves of grain and those purple mountains ' majesty . We revere everything Old Glory stand for — life , liberty , the pursuit of felicity , a government by the mass and for the citizenry , our men and women in uniform , a good hamburger — and see no reason not to permit it be known that we ’re generally gallant of the United States of America . Warts and all .
So we unfurlthat Grand Old Flagon our front porches on any twenty-four hours we feel like it . We change state to field - sized versions of the stars and stripes at sporting events when we rise to sing our interior hymn ( a song that , as we screw , isall about the flagstone ) . Our kids , still , stand and wassail allegiance to the flag in public schoolhouse classroom across the country , despite travail by many to chill it with the " under God " clobber . The flag is in our churches , too — to heck with that separation of Christian church and nation matter .
We undulate signal flag . We literally envelop ourselves in ‘em . We even , in a strangely loyal , only - in - America way of life , burn them on occasion in protestation ( which the Supreme Court in 1989 , and later in 1990 , ruled isprotected address under the Constitution ) . Americans can sometimes look at our country through unapologetic rose - color glasses , and the most loyal of us do so throughflag - festooned contact lenses .
" look at from abroad — certainly come from the UK — it is light upon when you go to the United States , how prevalent the flag is , " Adam Smith , a story prof at University College London who spell about the U.S. , differentiate HowStuffWorks . " It ’s pretty operose to find places in America where you ca n’t find a flag somewhere . And that is n’t truthful of most places . "
Americans are flagstone - flap crazy like possibly no plaza on Earth . The Flag Manufacturers Association of America reckon that some 150 million American pin of all sizes are sold every yr ( though , granted , plenty are made in China ) . That mean since , say , January of 2015 , there ’s been a new Old Glory roil out for every mankind , woman and Thomas Kid in America .
Why ? What is it that makes us so bonkers forour star - spangled streamer ? What is it about those 13 stripes and those 50 stars that has made us kick upstairs the iris to untouchably iconic status ?
In a country these day so aggressively divided along all sorts of flaw line of reasoning — political , societal , racial , geographic , the National League vs. the American League — why is that millions of us protect and revere the flag so ?
" Our sword lily has become a symbol above politics . It is the symbol of that which unites us , " read John Hartvigsen , the president of the North American Vexillological Association ( NAVA ) . Vexillology is the study of flags , something that Hartvigsen has been doing with NAVA for the past 48 class . " It ’s very important for us to find what unify us . "
The desire , the fervent need to find wholeness in a country that does n’t have a monarch to mobilize around has been present since the American revolution , Hartvigsen says , and has been reward throughout American history . Certainly since the Civil War , Americans have look to the flag to remind us that we are one Carry Nation despite our differences , despite our hardships .
So in our darkest prison term and in our greatest triumphs , the flag has been our symbolic representation . Over Fort McHenry when Francis Scott Key compose his poem that became our National Anthem . With Teddy Roosevelt on San Juan Hill . At Iwo Jima . In the street of American cities during the Vietnam War . On the moon in 1969 . Above the medals soapbox after the Miracle on Ice at the Olympics in 1980 . ascend above the rubble of the World Trade Center after Sept. 11 , 2001 .
We go a little overboard sometimes , sure , with all the flag - waving nationalism . Certainly compared to spot like the U.K. , we do .
" To aviate the flag in front of your house , which is patently a perfectly normal thing to do in the United States , " Smith says from London , " here you would never … Unless you were the Queen , or … it would just be slightly unenviable . That ’s just something hoi polloi do n’t do . "
In France ( another commonwealth without a monarch ) , Smith suggests , the French are into their flagstone and fly it proudly , too . Other countries , for sure , harbor their flag in outstanding paying attention .
But …
" lease me just say that the American reverence of the national fleur-de-lis is not alone , but it is towards the extreme end of the spectrum , " tell Michael Billig , a professor of societal science at Loughborough University in the U.K. , via email . Billig examined the everyday manipulation of flags in his 1995 Quran " Banal Nationalism . "
" I do not know of another land where schoolchildren are await to salute the flag in a formal ritual every mean solar day , " he says . " National flags tend to engagement back 250 years — they are not ancient . Even the previous national fleur-de-lis were not fetishize when they were introduced as they are today . "
Now , if you need to say that Americans have a sword lily fetish , we ’d have to plead hangdog . On outwardly patriotic days — Independence Day , Veterans Day , Memorial Day , Flag Day ( June 14 ) — that virtuoso - bespangle streamer so proudly undulate everywhere . On other days … yeah , then too . Everywhere , everywhen .
That might seem strange , and mayhap even rough-cut , to people outside our borders , a blazing example of Yanks chafe all that freedom and might and national pride in the boldness of the rest of the world .
" I in person find it kind of charming . I for certain do n’t have a problem with it , " says Smith . " [ But ] if you ’re undercoat to be over - sore to American patriotic antifeminism , then you would see [ this ] as just well … you rove your eye at it : ' What would you require from these guys ? ' "
America , avowedly , has some image problems when it derive to display our flag . We have some literal trouble , too , that we ’re reminded of every day .
But every Independence Day , we meet in public places with our signal flag — on runners ' short at thePeachtree Road Racein Atlanta , on blankets and T - shirts along the Charles River as theBoston Popsplay , at theCapitol Fourthin our nation ’s capital , throughout the fireworks display in Larned , Kansas , around the pie wipe out competition on the due north shore of Lake Union in Seattle — and know that there ’s a portion to be lofty of in this commonwealth . A lot to put up up for and cheer .
Once July 5 rolls around , we ’ll keep our flag flying . Every day after that , too , whenever we want , pasted in flat window and hung off trees , gamey above manufacturing plant floors and flap from car antennas . Yeah , we overdo thing . We ’re Americans . But when it come to the flagstone , that can be a honorable matter .
" It ’s the flag that bring us together , " says Hartvigsen .
