Flagging Professionalism

When I was in Boy Scouts, I had many skills pounded into me. Many of them didn't stick. I am in truth not the best at making fires and tying knots, although I have generally been able to re-teach myself when necessary. I also never cottoned to some of the values espoused, but other I still believe in. One in particular has to do with respect for the flag, and I'm sorry to say that the places which fly it around here are not too fervent about that.

There are a lot of rules, there's no denying that. The flag can't touch the ground. It always has to be lit up, either by the sun or artificial lighting. In the absence of light, it should be taken down, and when it eventually becomes visibly worn out, it must be retired. The proper procedure for retirement is awfully involved. You have to separate out the white strips, the red stripes, the white stars and the blue field behind them, then burn each group individually. It all requires effort.

I was leaving the library when I got curious about what strange flags there were that I saw flying below the US flag at a nearby unidentified government office. The office turned out to be a county-level one on health. It had flying the US flag, the California flag and of course the county flag (which I can't recall having seen previously). I just happened to be passing by at the end of their day when the man was out lowering them. That was a good thing. I've seen post offices here leave them up in the dark. That was all that was good.

The guy just balled them up and laid them down. He made no effort to fold them or keeping them off the ground, and I was none too pleased. It's no wonder sometimes that government fails at high-level tasks like maintaining the economy if the lack either the ability to look after the flag, the inclination to do so or both. There are just not a whole lot of people around with anything like a competent bearing or any kind of respect or reverence for our institutions. The choices seem to be between indifference and outright contempt. That's unfortunate.