Red, White and Such (12/28/2008)
The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty, democracy, and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it.
- Joe Barton
I have neighbors kitty-corner from me that I think I like. I've never actually talked with them, so I can't say that I like them for sure, but their yard decorations are fantastic. Around the time of Halloween they put up cobwebs and a life-size skeleton in surgical smocks. Things were just as festive for Christmas. Their yard is filled with Obama campaign signs. Also adding to their neighborly credit is that their children and pets are never playing outside my window at 8am on a Saturday morning. All these things have led me to love this set of neighboors.
I walk past their yard every day on my way to and from the car and recently they put a nail into a tree in front of their house and hung an American flag on it. The nail wasn't quite high enough and of the last few inches of the flag dropped onto the group. I added an extra hook onto the tree and put the other corner eyelet of the flag through it to raise it complete off the ground ("The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.").
Every night they leave the flag out in the dark and the cold ("the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness."). Now, it's even started to rain often on the poor thing ("The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is inclement").
It rubs me the wrong way every day that I walk past the house and the fact that it bothers me bothers me more, because I don't think of myself as that kind of guy. I feel like nailing a flag onto the tree makes them feel like good Americans and I feel like if you're going to through the trouble of actually flying a flag you should do it right. Congress has raitified rules and recommendations on this sort of thing, and while it's not the law by any means, it doesn't seem that hard to follow. Seeing someone express themselves by burning a flag doesn't bother me at all, so why does someone patriotically flying one incorrectly get me grumbly inside? My theory: it's just tweaking the OCD "do it right or don't bother doing it" part of my brain. Am I being too crazy?
