On the American National Flag

     One of our great symbols is the American flag, 13 red and white 1)stripes 2)corresponding to the number of original states on a 3)rectangular piece of cloth, one corner blue with 50 white stars for 50 states.

     You see the flag everywhere now, 4) “what so proudly we hail.” It means the World Trade Center happened to all of us. “We’re proud to be Americans,” say flags on front 5)porches in small towns across the country. Some homes seem to have been built to fly the flag. This wouldn’t be complete without it; just perfect. “We’re American too” say the flags 6)inelegantly glued to the city apartment windows. The declaration of 7)patriotic 1 intent is everywhere, the simplest as 8)persuasive 2 as the displays where one was considered not enough. Rockefeller Center with 150 beauties is in show business, a stirring sight although it’s unlikely that management there loves our country more than the owner of the smallest small business, displaying just one.

     The Annin flag company makes most American flags. They have more business than they can do now. You don’t have to go to Annin to buy a flag though. Flag sales are a street corner cottage industry. 9)Furtive 3 operatives set up shop, to them the buck 4 means more than the 10)banner.

     The colors of our flag and the numbers of stars and stripes are 11)ordained 5, but there is no rule regarding dimension. There are tiny flags on sticks made in China. This grand flag is so big on a building in New York that it had to be continued around the corner. This beauty hangs from the side wall of a fire house. And you wouldn’t want a dirty flag so they wash theirs.

     Everyone wants to be associated with the flag. America and Yale, America and 12)Episcopalians, America and 13)J.P. Morgan, America and 14)Maxell, America and the Ritz Tower.

     There are inevitably 6 people who are more anxious to appear patriotic than to be patriotic. They tread a fine line between patriotism 7 and commerce. The flag is everywhere in close 15)proximity 8 to a business interest. It sells shoes and shoe repair, women’s dresses. The American flag invites 16)diners to foreign restaurants, Japanese, Italian, even Afghan.

     There is an official flag code but it is 17)routinely ignored. It is not proper to use the flag as a table cloth. It is not to be used as an 18)awning 9 or a 19)canopy 10 or plastered to the 20)hood 11 of a car. The code says the American flag is not to be used as 21)decorative 12 clothing. Some find it 22)irresistibly 13 23)fashionable though and we are more amused than they.

This is how the star 24)spangled banner was meant to be flown on the end of a pole of its own, free to wave 25)majestically 14 in our own free air.CE