"You're a grand old flag, you're a high-flying flag"

On the Fourth of July, with nothing better to do in late afternoon, I turned on Turner Movie Classics and caught a bit of the ridiculously corny James Cagney film Yankee Doodle Dandy, the heavily fictionalized biopic of George M. Cohan, the songwriter-performer who wrote all sorts of ridiculously corny American songbook songs.

Naturally, I sang along with "For It Was Mary," "Over There," the eponymous "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and - of course - "Grand Old Flag."

Earlier in the day, when I'd served breakfast (grits) and lunch (hot dogs and potato salad) at St. Francis House, I wore a light blue ball cap with the flag on it.

In donning my flagged apparel, I was a bit concerned that someone might take me for a jingoistic, white nationalist - the RWNJ's having done such a good job of co-opting the use of the flag. (Fortunately or unfortunately, they've somewhat diluted the field by also flying Trump 2024, Fuck Joe Biden, Don't Tread on Me, Confederate, and even Nazi flags.) I thought about taping a little note onto my cap indicating that I was "Baptized a Catholic, but born a Democrat" or maybe "LWNJ," but decided to tough it out.

In any case, I like the flag just fine, and am happy to see people flying it, especially on holidays.

My sister Kath has the flag that draped my WWII vet father's coffin and, when she had her house in Wellfleet, she used to put it out on Memorial Day, the Fourth, and Labor Day.

I have a small American flag, one of the flimsy little ones they give out in Boston's Downtown Crossing on the Fourth. It's in a vase in my kitchen alongside the flimsy little Ukrainian flag I got at a Slava Ukraini rally in the winter of 2022.

So, yeah, I'm mostly happy to be an American and like the flag well enough. If I had a house, I'd probably put a flag out on patriotic holidays. Partly because I'm mostly happy to be an American and partly to take ownership of the flag metaphor back from the RWNJs.

But I sure wouldn't want to live any place where I was forced to fly the Stars and Stripes. So I guess I won't be moving any time soon to an under-development 55+ community (1776 Gastonia) in Gastonia, North Carolina, that will be requiring all of its residents to fly the flag all the time. 

"We're handling the American flag like an architectural element," Brock Fankhauser, the owner and founder of Great American Homes, said. "We are installing it similarly to a fixture."

Fankhauser said each resident will be given an American flag upon moving in and will have agreed to display it in front of their homes at all times. Though, Fankhauser stressed his community is not associated with any particular political party.

"I've also said it's very important for us to distance ourselves from any political movement, any political party, and any political figures," he said. "We are completely detached from that." (Source: WCNC)

I could see it if they issued everyone an American flag and encouraged them to, say, fly it on those patriotic holidays that call for flag-waving. Or if the community decided it was part of their decor and flew a bunch of flags in public places, like baskets full of petunias hanging from the light poles. 

But forcing everyone into 365 days of flag flying seems kind of un-American to me. 

And what about when the flag gets old, frayed, and dirty.

Years ago, the local Post Office had a flag out front that got so filthy from car exhaust that it was the red-brown-and-blue. It looked terrible. Eventually, after enough of us complained, they replaced it with a fresh flag.

Who'll be paying for the replacement flags for the Gastonia 1776 residents when the originals they're issued wear out? Are you on the hook to buy your own? And if it's your responsibility, does the replacement flag have to be the same as the original? If you don't like the original - for all I know, they'll be distributing cheesy looking polyester flags made in China, not heavy duty cotton flags made in America, the nice ones where you can see the stitching, the ones that look like they were crafted by hand by one of Betsy Ross's great-great-great-great-great-granddaughters -  can you upgrade on your own. Or does the covenant have specific size, fabric, and country of origin requirements?

As I said, the whole thing seems un-American to me. 

Good thing I wasn't planning to decamp to Gastonia anytime soon.

Meanwhile, hey, it's my flag, too. "Forever in peace may you wave."