American Flag Blog

While reading various news stories about various Memorial Day events, I was struck that so many Americans love their country and cherish the American flag. There’s really only a very small band of America haters, but unfortunately, they have access to a lot of media outlets and they are very vocal, as people who are very self-absorbed often are.

The good news is that, contrary to what the haters will tell you, those Americans who truly love their country far outweigh the haters.

Here’s something I came across that I think is a beautiful Memorial Day tribute:

"These heroes are dead. They died for liberty; they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadow of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars; they are at peace. In the midst of the battles, in the roar of conflicts, they found the serenity of death."

-Author Unknown

If you wonder what all the fuss is about when it comes to desecration of the American flag - if you think that people are taking this issue a little too seriously, then read the following story from the Associated Press. When brave Americans are willing to risk their lives over this most powerful symbol of freedom - the American flag, it seems very twisted that someone would want to disrespect that symbol.

ALTAMONT, New York (AP) — A soldier held in Japanese prison camps in World War II secretly painted stars and stripes on pilfered paper hidden from his captors, then held the flag up high to greet American planes flying overhead when his camp was liberated.

After returning home, Cpl. Millard Orsini consigned the object of his secret work to a closet. He rarely mentioned the war or the moldering flag, and died in 1978 from a heart attack.

"He was really a hometown hero who got lost in the cracks," said Tony Ferraioli, who led the effort to restore the flag.

Its dark red stripes and 48 stars have been restored and it now hangs in a frame at the Homefront Cafe, a World War II-themed restaurant in Altamont, Orsini’s old home village near Albany.

Orsini was one of seven brothers who served during World War II. The combat engineer was captured early in the war in the Philippines. In April 1942, he and some 70,000 fellow prisoners were herded into the 55-mile Bataan Death March, during which up to 10,000 marchers died.

The next 39 months in Japanese prison camps were nearly as brutal. A book on the death march, "Horror Trek," described his punishment in 1944 for stealing potato peels from a trash heap: "(H)e was slugged and beaten by a dozen guards until he collapsed — then he was kicked in the face."

He painted the flag on a newspaper-sized piece of pulpy paper, maybe a window shade or wrapping paper, using stolen or creatively mixed oil paints. The craftsmanship is meticulous.

It is believed that he hid the flag under floorboards while his fellow prisoners kept watch.

"If he got caught, it would have been the end of him," said his brother, Joseph Orsini.

Joseph Orsini remembers his brother talking about holding the flag up to greet American planes flying over the newly liberated camp.

Ferraioli, who was commander of the Altamont Veterans of Foreign Wars post in 2001, decided to honor Orsini during the post’s annual "Loyalty Day" celebration.

Orsini’s widow handed over her husband’s Purple Heart, Bronze Star and snapshots. She also gave him the folded flag, torn and blackened by mold.

Locals raised $3,000 for textile restoration. The flag, brightened up, vacuum-sealed and framed, was unveiled at a Loyalty Day ceremony June 2002.

It hung for a while in local government offices, but veterans felt a more fitting place was the restaurant decorated with Norman Rockwell prints and sepia-toned snapshots of soldiers.

It’s not exactly a museum setting, but owner Cindy Pollard keeps a history of the flag handy and is happy to tell the story of its maker. She’ll also show a photo of the seven Orsini brothers in uniform, dated 1947.

What inspired Orsini to risk his life to make the flag is not clear. Those who knew him say the flag was a simple symbol of his deep patriotism.

A prisoner of a different war, U.S. Sen. John McCain, tells an anecdote about a comrade who sewed a flag inside his shirt so others could pledge allegiance. After the flag was discovered and the prisoner was beaten, he started to make another one.

Pollard sees a similar patriotic spirit in Orsini and makes it a point to tell that to children who come to see the flag.

"I like to tell how much this man loved his country," Pollard said.

The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee has placed their stamp of approval on a bill that will prevent homeowner’s associations from banning the display of the American flag, the Pennsylvania flag or any military flags by private individuals on their own property.

House Democrat Babette Josephs is quoted as saying, "How much can the state intrude in telling people who are running private associations what they may or may not do?" While House Republican Will Gabig says, "We are upholding a long traditional part of the Bill of Rights called the First Amendment right to free speech."

As much as I would like to see every homeowner flying an American flag from the front porch - preferrably purchased from Flagstuff.com - I have to agree with Babette. If you agree to abide by the rules of the neighborhood, as long as the rules represent the actual wishes of the majority of homeowners, when you buy your little slice of heaven, then live with it or leave. I would just like to know where she stands on the Boy Scouts issue.

The ACLU today is urging that Congress reject the Flag Desecration Ammendment. In their own words, "free expression and the right to dissent are among the core principles for which the American flag stands." And here’s a quote from Terri Ann Schroeder, an ACLU Senior Lobbyist, "The First Amendment must most be protected when it comes to unpopular speech. Failure to do so fails the very notion of freedom of expression."

They love to mix the terms "free speech" and "free expression." But aren’t they really two different things?

Here’s a great example of "free expression" as the ACLU defines it. A mother in Phiadelphia yesterday rammed her mini van into the front of school in what was characterized as protest over the inaction of school authorities in protecting her children from repeated bullying.

The ACLU wants to protect closet arsonists who want to burn objects, like the American flag for instance, in public places where lighting fires is normally in violation of the law. Yet they take no interest in defending a mother who is desperate to protect her children from a very real threat. Perhaps the ACLU should be called on to give a very specific definition of what behavior constitutes "free expression" and what behavior does not.

Yesterday, I wrote about Newsweek’s despicable cover depicting an American flag in a trash can that appeared on the Feb. 2 cover in Japan only.

Well, the cover for that same edition that appeared in other parts of the world, except for the United States, showed a picture of President Bush with the headline, "America Leads… But is Anyone Following?" The story inside was supposedly all about "the world’s rejection of the American way of life." That story did not appear in the US edition. The US cover was fluff about the oscars.

Of course, the self-loathing twerps at Newsweek, who, I imagine, love to discuss the shortcomings of Americans, while they dine on sushi, didn’t have the courage to run these covers in this country. If the rest of the world rejects the American way of life, why do so many people all around the world go to such great lengths to imitate things American? I suspect that it’s not the people that reject the American way of life, but rather, the despotic rulers and tyrant wanna-be’s who fear the effects of American freedom.

Newsweek has done it again! As the press rallied to the defense of Isikoff and Newsweek by casting the spotlight on the Whitehouse, Newsweek was busy distributing a version of the mag with this cover in Japan. The main headline allegedly reads, “The Day America Died — The ideal of ‘freedom’ falls to the ground due to Bush continuing in office.”

What I would like to know is, who’s the low-life who posed the American flag in the trash can, and was it a thrill for him/her?

It’s too bad that there evidently isn’t enough popular support for a flag change in New Zealand. We would love to see it happen.

NZ flag to stay as is [Australian Broadcasting Corporation]

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says a referendum on changing the flag is not on the agenda.

Her comments follow a call by New Zealand’s Greens leader, Rod Donald, for people to be asked if they want the flag changed.

He said people would not have been able to distinguish the New Zealand flag from the Australian one when it was raised at the Athens Olympics after twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell won gold in the rowing.

Ms Clark says even if the public might question whether the flag - sporting a Union Jack - represents a modern New Zealand, any referendum on the issue was "some way off".

She says that when that time comes, the future of the flag should not be determined by the Government.

We were located in New Jersey, less than 10 miles as the crow flies from the World Trade center, on 9/11/01. There are only two days of my entire life that I pretty much remember every detail - the day I got married and 9/11.

I was minutes away from entering Manhattan from the Jersey side that morning when the first plane hit. Eleven people from our small town of 8,000 never came home again - one of them a neighbor from a few doors down. One thing I know, if I had not been a witness to this evil and arrogant, yes, arrogant, attack on America, I could not possibly now imagine what it could have been like.

I also know that many people in America, especially parts of our country far away from New York, view 9/11 as some weird tragic event that was totally unconnected to their own lives. But the terrorists themselves only viewed the World Trade Center and The Pentagon as symbols of America and the American people.

That’s why I’m glad to see that this flag has been saved and is being dedicated to the remembrance of the 9/11 attack on America. 

Flag flies at WTC post office [The Associated Press]

An American flag that flew over the post office across from the World Trade Center was returned to ground zero Thursday during a rededication ceremony for the newly restored post office.

The flag, which was found in the rubble of the trade center after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, will be mounted in the lobby of the post office at 90 Church St. as a memorial.

"This flag, covered with the dust and debris, became a symbol of hope — hope that this building would one day be restored to service — and hope that the people of New York and this nation would also be restored," said Postmaster General John Potter.

Potter presented the flag to station manager Lorenzo Richardson and postal union leaders.

The Church Street post office actually reopened Aug. 2, nearly three years after it was damaged in the attack that destroyed the twin towers.

The 15-story limestone building just north of ground zero was contaminated by asbestos, mercury and other substances. Workers had to demolish interior walls and replace some elevator parts to make the building safe again.

Poor Michael Isikoff of Newsweek Magazine has really done it now. He might even have to give up the key to the executive washroom. But seriously, is his cluelessness just an act? How did he think that people who hate America irrationally will act? They certainly don’t need much of an excuse to kill people, or kill themselves along with other people, or fly planes into buildings for that matter. Muslims burning the American flag in far off streets is now the least of our worries.

Isikoff said in a published interview Tuesday morning: "Whenever something like this happens, you’ve got to take stock and review what you did - how the story was handled. The big point that leaps out is the cultural one. Neither NEWSWEEK nor the Pentagon foresaw that a reference to the desecration of the Koran was going to create the kind of response that it did. The Pentagon saw the item before it ran, and then they didn’t move us off it for 11 days afterward. They were as caught off guard by the furor as we were. We obviously blame ourselves for not understanding the potential ramifications."

"When I see an American flag flying, it’s a joke." — Robert Altman

In case you don’t know who Robert Altman is, he’s the cinematic genius who brought us such scholarly, thought-provoking television drama as the ’60’s series "Combat." And the list of triumphs he brought to the big screen is equally noteworthy - such blockbusters as 1980’s "Popeye."

When he insults the American flag, and by extension, America itself, do you think he knows or cares that he is insulting the majority of his (limited) audience? To enjoy, in such abundance, the fruits that America has afforded him, while trashing the symbol of our freedom, shows just how arrogant and self-absorbed these people are.

Kind of reminds me of Marie Antoinette.