American Flag-naticism
While the actual creation of the flag is fairly straight-forward, if somewhat debated, the passing of the Flag Act in 1777 by the Continental Congress was the last clear and comfortable thing about it. Since then, things have been a bit of a roller coaster, sometimes fun, sometimes scary, and rarely moving in a straight line.
For a short period starting in 1794 we had a flag with 15 stars on the Canton (blue section) and 15 stripes.
The problem was that more and more states kept joining the union, so in 1818 congress passed an act though gave us 13 stripes for the original colonies and 1 star for each state. While some smaller changes happened over the years, even up to 1959, this was where the design really came together.
Before we get to the Eisenhower years, however, we need to take a pit stop in 1992 and Francis Bellamy.
Now, Bellamy wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance while working on The Youth’s Companion, a children’s magazine. Bellamy, an American Christian Socialist — yes Socialist, sorry conservatives — was struggling with a disease that is rampant in America still today: xenophobia. He wanted all these foreigners coming to the country to start sounding American.
His original pledge was as follows:
I pledge Allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.
This would be followed by the Bellamy Salute, which is exactly how it looks.
With this, the students would then chant:
One Country! One Language! One Flag!
This would persist until 1942 when people realized just what it resembled.
Within that time, in 1923, “my flag” was replaced by “the Flag of the United States of America.”
The interesting part is that you may notice something missing, even after the 1923 update. That’s because “Under God” wasn’t added until 1954 at the urging of President Eisenhower due to the rampant fears of Communism.
This is the pledge that is used today.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Since then, things have continued to escalate.
Due to Vietnam War protests, the Flag Protection Act of 1968 was passed. Though there were attempts to overturn it on First Amendment grounds, they failed. It was upheld and the states all passed their own laws against desecrating the American Flag.
This lasted until Gregory Lee Johnson set fire to a flag outside the 1984 Republican National Convention to protest President Reagan’s policies. Texas charged and convicted him for desecrating the flag. After the conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas took it up to the Supreme Court.
Johnson was represented here by William Kunstler, and lawyer who took on a large number of civil rights cases and served for 8 years as the director of the ACLU. During the hearing, he gave a fantastic quote.
By the way talking about flags in front of the Supreme Court when I came by today. The flags were up in the rain. And under 36 US Code the leading provision there is flags shall not be displayed in inclement weather.
Texas v. Johnson was decided in a 5–4 decision that burning the flag was protected speech under the First Amendment, overturning state laws everywhere overnight.
Today, we need American Nationalists pearl-clutching over the American flag and fetishizing their love of it, while violated the flag code on a frequent basis.
The American Flag is a powerful and persistent symbol. To Nationalists, it’s the ultimate symbol of freedom….except when those they don’t like fly it. To many in other parts of the world, it stands as a symbol of oppression and violence. To most, it’s simply one of many icons in our country that we’ve always had.
What does it mean to you?
