In light of recent events it is past time somebody started teaching proper treatment of the flag again. This will be a short listing of "Do's and Don'ts", but a few interesting facts about the flag itself will also be provided.

First thing you need to know is our national banner is not the flag. Our official banner is called: "The Colors". The flag is merely a smaller representation of The Colors. If you've ever heard a
military officer in a war movie say, "Strike The Colors!" the officer was giving an order to take down The Colors (or what everybody these days calls a flag).

The Colors appears to be a fancy flag. It is bigger with gold fringe around it. It also has gold lanyards and a brass eagle on its staff. In fact, only The Colors' are allowed to have the
eagle and lanyards. Regular flags are only supposed to have a ball or a spear
tip on the staff.

NOTE: Ignore the idiots claiming
there is no American flag authorized to have gold fringe! These goofballs are
only half correct, and, because they are too ignorant to actually do any real
research, they try to tell you any place you see such a flag is an unconstitutional
government agency trying to enforce false laws. Don't pay attention to their
garbage. The part they got correct is no flag is allowed to have gold fringe.
Only The Colors is allowed to have that fringe, and all significant government
agencies will have The Colors properly displayed in important places. If you
see the gold fringe, you are looking at The Colors, and you better believe the
people in that courtroom or whatever have authority over you.

Do's and Don'ts:

The flag must be treated
respectfully at all times, and that does NOT mean it's okay to do things to it
you think are respectful. If you truly want to show your patriotism you should first make sure you know what proper flag etiquette is. The flag being used as a hammock with a baby in it is
a perfect example. It may seem all right to the ordinary person to do such a
thing, especially if that person is inclined to get all gushy over "cute"
things, but it is highly disrespectful. In this case, the situation is worse
because military people were involved. The military used to be a good place to
get taught flag etiquette, but now I guess the services spend too much time on
sensitivity training, workplace violence, and feeling sympathy towards the enemy
to have any time left to teach about our flag. The important thing to
understand is how you "feel" when you are unintentionally desecrating the flag
is completely irrelevant. Your personal feelings do not lesson the desecration.

The flag is not a decoration. When
seen, it must always be properly displayed.

There was a time when everybody knew
not to let the flag touch the ground. I suppose a few still do now, but nobody
seems to know when the flag is 'free' it isn't supposed to touch anything at
all except the staff it is on. You aren't supposed to wear it around your
shoulders and you aren't supposed to wave it around like a giant hanky.

When the flag is displayed on the
wall, nothing else is allowed to touch it, and the stars must always be on the
viewer's left. The flag is never to be used in a wrinkled manner such as
bunting. Bunting is red, white and blue stripes.

You do not make clothes from the
flag. Making hats, shirts, scarves, ties, or whatever with red and white
stripes, and/or a blue field with white stars, is a desecration. It implies you
cut up a flag to make clothes.

Don't look to our Olympic teams for
proper flag displays. Our flag is routinely desecrated by happy clowns thinking
they are showing patriotism. For good guidance look to the Boy Scouts.

Once a flag has been desecrated,
intentionally or not, it cannot be re-used. It must be burned. I usually fold
my flag properly into a triangle before burning it, but that isn't required.
All that's required is to burn it in a respectful manner.

Leaving your flag out all day and
all night is normally a desecration. If you are going to do this, you must keep the flag lighted all night. It
is not supposed to be in the dark. If you aren't going to put a light on it,
you need to bring it back into the house before sunset. Also, you must change
it when it gets faded and/or frayed. There are far too many people out there breaking
these rules, blithely believing they are being patriotic. If you love the flag it won't be too much an imposition to treat it properly.

These are the biggies. If you truly
care about our flag and what it stands for you need to make sure you follow
proper etiquette.

PS. Life to America!