Free Dating Site    

TITLE 4--FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES CHAPTER 1--THE FLAG Sec. 8. Respect for flag No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor. (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

TITLE 4--FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES CHAPTER 1--THE FLAG Sec. 8. Respect for flag No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor. (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

"it's her right to do this" incorrect, it is illegal for her to do this. she has the right to demonstrate by using any legal means.
it won't hold up on an appeal, correct, just another flaw in our judicial system...

they my friend stand for the flag as well. disrespecting the flag or symbols, disrespects the things they helped to build.
hate american policy, not america.

why do you deem the symbols of those ideas as unimportant?

Previous to Flag Day, June 14, 1923 there were no federal or state regulations governing display of the United States Flag. It was on this date that the National Flag Code was adopted by the National Flag Conference which was attended by representatives of the Army and Navy which had evolved their own procedures, and some 66 other national groups. This purpose of providing guidance based on the Army and Navy procedures relating to display and associated questions about the U. S. Flag was adopted by all organizations in attendance.

A few minor changes were made a year later during the Flag Day 1924 Conference, It was not until June 22, 1942 that Congress passed a joint resolution which was amended on December 22, 1942 to become Public Law 829; Chapter 806, 77th Congress, 2nd session. Exact rules for use and display of the flag (36 U.S.C. 173-178) as well as associated sections (36 U.S.C. 171) Conduct during Playing of the National Anthem, (36 U.S.C. 172) the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Manner of Delivery were included.

This code is the guide for all handling and display of the Stars and Stripes. It does not impose penalties for misuse of the United States Flag. That is left to the states and to the federal government for the District of Columbia. Each state has its own flag law.

Criminal penalties for certain acts of desecration to the flag were contained in Title 18 of the United States Code prior to 1989. The Supreme Court decision in Texas v. Johnson; June 21, 1989, held the statute unconstitutional. This statute was amended when the Flag Protection Act of 1989 (Oct. 28, 1989) imposed a fine and/or up to I year in prison for knowingly mutilating, defacing, physically defiling, maintaining on the floor or trampling upon any flag of the United States. The Flag Protection Act of 1989 was struck down by the Supreme Court decision, United States vs. Eichman, decided on June 11, 1990.

While the Code empowers the President of the United States to alter, modify, repeal or prescribe additional rules regarding the Flag, no federal agency has the authority to issue 'official' rulings legally binding on civilians or civilian groups. Consequently, different interpretations of various provisions of the Code may continue to be made. The Flag Code may be fairly tested: 'No disrespect should be shown to the Flag of the United States of America.' Therefore, actions not specifically included in the Code may be deemed acceptable as long as proper respect is shown.

OP--...there is a woman that is "silently protesting the war in Iraq" by hanging the American flag upside down. She is claiming that it's her freedom of speech....I have very strong feelings about this, but I wanna know what you all think!

Trailsman5, msg. 7
Hanging a flag upside down was supposed to incite the emotions and draw attention. Now that you've dedicated an entire thread for it seen by people from around the world, I guess she can say "Mission Accomplished".

...But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty....

Fiddler, I suggest you read what Jefferson's thoughts were regarding alien and sedition laws.

It's like this: America is not at war, the military is at war.

AtlDC03, msg. 45
Pagan...where are these jack-booted stormtroopers?

You have not lost any freedoms and I challenge you to show me where innocent Americans have been arrested or imprisoned under the Patriot Act.

Dude, the upside-down flag is an international symbol of distress. Used in this manner it has nothing to do with "cut and run" (god, how I love the over-the-top hyperbole of the Iraq war supporters!), its a symbol of the distress felt by, well, pretty close to a majority of Americans these days over the issue.

People, we need not be drama-queens. Bush is not Hitler; this isn't some dictatorship you're living in. Great, you don't think Radical Islam is a threat that needs to be dealt with...that's your opinion. In times of war, measures have always been taken that you guys seem to think are new. You have not lost any freedoms and I challenge you to show me where innocent Americans have been arrested or imprisoned under the Patriot Act.

The report draws no broad conclusions about the extent of abuses by Justice Department employees, although it suggests that the relatively small staff of the inspector general's office has been overwhelmed by accusations of abuse, many filed by Muslim or Arab inmates in federal detention centers.

The inspector general said that from Dec. 16 through June 15, his office received 1,073 complaints "suggesting a Patriot Act-related" abuse of civil rights or civil liberties.

The report suggested that hundreds of the accusations were easily dismissed as not credible or impossible to prove. But of the remainder, 272 were determined to fall within the inspector general's jurisdiction, with 34 raising "credible Patriot Act violations on their face."

Considering the shape the country is in, with Iraq, the insane amount of national debt,
the ethical vacuum in the White House, the polarization between right and left, etc., etc.
one would have to say that yes, it really could be considered a 'national emergency.'

Distress in the context Mungojoe was putting it is defined as - "the state of a ship or airplane requiring immediate assistance, as when on fire in transit."

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
( letter to James Lewis, Jr., May 9, 1798)

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
( to Archibald Stuart, 1791)

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Every generation needs a new revolution.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Thomas Jefferson