Muslim girl wearing American flag Hijab shamed by bigots.

[Sumeri]

I just started some stupidity on Facebook yesterday about the flag code, because someone posted that same, tired video that pops up every 4th of July with a veteran cutting down a Mexican flag that was flying above the US flag in front of a grocery store. The comments were absolutely appalling, as you can imagine, so I presented a true story: I just got back from camping near the Canadian border, where our campsite had the Maple Leaf flying higher than the stars and stripes. Why no vitriol for that? I should have kept my mouth shut, because now the guy who posted it is on a mission to contact the authorities about this awful breach of the flag code. He actually sent them a scathing letter, and I'm mortified. I am hoping that the park rangers will recognize his raving for what it is, adjust the flags to their proper heights and roll their eyes.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that flag etiquette is rarely, rarely, rarely followed nowadays, and only gets people's hackles up when it's a brown person who uses the flag AT ALL. The Mexican store in question? They didn't have to have an American Flag at their place of business, period, it's not the law. Maybe if someone had stopped in and said, "Hey guys, whoops! Flags are in the wrong order!" they would have responded, "Oh, sorry, let me fix that", instead of having some rabid guy shimmy up the side of their building with a knife like a crazy person. Go to any fabric store this time of year and you will be treated to a wide variety of material with stars and stripes as their pattern (and by this week probably seriously discounted as well). Until Michael's and JoAnn's start making signs saying "Not for use as a headcovering", I think this girl is covered. They make underpants printed like the American flag.

Edited: Punctuation. It's a good thing.

[crazyforkate]

It's got tassels and the stripes don't quite look white, so I highly doubt it's an actual flag. I've seen people wear Canada flags as capes and no one got upset, but maybe Canada doesn't have a flag code.

If we do, then practically no one knows about it or makes any kind of deal about it. We just don't put our flag in the same place that the US does. It's much rarer to see it flying from a private home, for example.