Reply #45: Yes [View All]

[5thGenDemocrat]

On holidays and whenever else I feel like it, but not 24/7/365. Without the flag being properly lighted (and mine isn't), it is improper to fly it at night, while displaying it on my car, boat, lapel or desktop seems a bit "rah-rah" to me.
I believe that the only reason the reich-wingers have hijacked the flag is because we've let them do it. I am old enough to remember that dirty, nasty, unkempt little dink -- let's call him "Ho Chi Moron" -- running through Grant Park in Chicago in 1968 proudly flying his personal VietCong flag. That single image (and the accompanying circus around it) did as much to set back the left as anything I can think of.
Parenthetically, I served in the US Army from 1974-76 but, since I'm a liberal, my service doesn't count to a lot of Merkins because I am, in their analysis, still just an America-hating commie. I get this blather from Andy the Right Wing Republican a lot even though I served and he didn't.
Any flag -- ours, theirs -- is a powerful image. That's why I stand squarely for flag-burning as protected speech and why I fly Old Glory whenever I can. I also fly the Canadian flag on relevant occasions (Canada Day, Gordie Howe's birthday, the Saginaw Spirit making the OHL playoffs -- should that ever happen). It keeps the neighbors wondering what's up and, symbolically, gets me out of the US for a little while and allows me to identify with a bit of sanity while living in one crazy-ass country.
Plus, since my grandfather, 3rdGenDem, served in the Canadian Army (Princess Patricia's Light Infantry) from 1940-42, I guess my family's earned the right to fly that flag, too.
John
G2grandpa (1stGenDem) served in the Confederate Army (I don't fly that one though -- like I said, any flag is a powerful symbol).