For an immigrant country with an origin story rooted in declaring independence from the colony’s authorities involving armed conflict, the meaning of the flag more than 200 years later is multi-faceted. This video clip comes from about a week after Memorial Day, in the beginning a time to remember the casualties of the U.S. Civil War, but expanded to include those in uniform from all conflicts and presumably those in military service during the periods between conflicts, too. The U.S. flags that dot this cemetery denote former service members. Almost all flags are stars and stripes, but at the end of this video clip there is a grave with both the U.S. and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam’s official flag, 1949–1975). Perhaps this is the grave of a war veteran, or it is connected to a refugee of that war.
Unlike many other countries, it is not uncommon to see citizens around the USA treating the national flag as a personal possession, something connected to one’s identity, or as a kind of finishing touch to one’s business or residential property. In other words, it may belong to the federal government, but individuals also claim it. This feeling of pride of ownership sometimes pertains to national parks and other national recreation areas, too. Other than this popular culture dimension (decorative, mood-setting), there are many other meanings that can combine according to person, situation, and intention. And while one particular meaning may predominate in one case, the assembly of many meanings is not far from the surface at the same time.
Visitors to USA will have their own interpretations of cultural meaning and intended message or expression when seeing flags at retail business, factories, subdivisions, and schools. But for the citizens (and maybe permanent residents, too) in cities and rural places, from one region or another region, from all educational and income levels the meanings of flags include so many sorts of significance. Hoisted on a flagpole in front of a tidy front yard, the flag seems to declare “this household is law-abiding; we respect the history and ideals, support the constitution, and believe in liberty for all.” On a bumpersticker the flag may illustrate the “buy American, not foreign” message of economic selectivity; economic politics. On a t-shirt or motorcycle helmet or lunchbox, the meaning seems to be a combination of: out of the ordinary, specially decorated, official and worthy of being taken seriously --fun, above board, and more important than unmarked instances of the item. For immigrants, whether by marriage, company recruitment, or as refugees the decision to display the national flag is personal — not like those born and raised in the USA who self-identify with certain imagery or symbolism contained in the star-spangled banner, but personal for signaling an accomplishment or attainment of status. Perhaps it means some combination of: a new life free from former threats, a set of opportunities different to previous ones, a circle of friends and/or family based in USA. For veterans and their families the flying of a U.S. flag at home or seeing one at the homes of others, as well as at public buildings and events, could bring back memories of wearing a military uniform, sometimes being wounded or dying as a result of that service; even if not of direct, personal consequence, then the flag could carry historical awareness of fellow citizens touched by conflicts within memory and before that. For civil rights advocates and activists the national flag embodies a set of promises that are worth insisting upon for all citizens. For Native Americans the relationship and meaning of the federal government’s banner is particularly conflicted; first for the harm suffered historically and today, but also for the disproportionately high percentage of tribal people who have served in military uniform for generations, perhaps in respect and love of the land that has given life to their people for so long, rather than out of loyalty to the federal system of checks and balances, and so on.
Like all cultural meanings the national flag’s significance is a combination of shared meanings and individual understandings. It is not frozen in time, but adapts with each new generation, taking on some new aspects and possibly muting or dropping other meanings. The sampling of flag meanings, above, is doubtless incomplete and cursory, but among these kinds of meaning it is the particular kinds of use by individuals that intrigues me most. Without actually surveying a wide range of people and then interviewing a few representatives to discover the various types of personal expression with the U.S. flag, it is impossible to declare definitively the shape of this flag relationship with citizens of 2020 USA. So this essay is speculative, relying on imagination instead of survey work.
Putting a national flag on a personal residence communicates to owner (I believe in this things symbolized here: authority, righteousness, “In God We Trust,” due process, fair play, hard work and resourcefulness, and so on) and it communicates to the public-facing street, including fellow residents and their visitors, passers-by, trades people (repairs, lawn service, package delivery, mail carrier, sales person), and persons on official business (police, fire, ambulance, census workers, snow plows, garbage haulers, meter readers). For anyone nearing a house prominently displaying the national symbol there could be a few impressions: this resident is conscientious of civic duties (or as military veteran this resident has sweat equity in the federal government), this resident has a family tradition to follow, this resident is anxious to dispel any aspersions about loyalty and way-of-life, this resident is fashion or design conscious and selected stars and stripes to accent the well-maintained landscaping and building exterior. Or maybe there is a hint of “halo effect” for the resident to bask in a little of the Government of the United States of America. This list of free associations is hardly comprehensive, but it offers some of the wide ranging meanings that this national flag can produce.
By contrast there are other houses in the vicinity where different flags decorate the front of the house but in place of a (regulation size) national flag, there is a seasonal greeting (Christmas, Easter, Summer recreation, fall harvest, and so on) or perhaps there is a college alma mater flag on display. Old Glory is national after all, so it differs to the personal-meaning for college alumni, and yet it is grounded in historical fact and present-day power, so it is not so generic as a seasonal greeting flag. The national flag can curiously be highly personal in meaning (one’s family history, one’s personal work experience, symbolic resonance for imagined ideals) but it can also be relatively neutral; not touched by college rivalries, not limited to just one state government, and not linked to political party or election-year campaigns.
So while this essay is not systematic or based in social science survey or statistics, it does spotlight the relationships that people may have with the national flag that some gladly display publicly; others less prominently; and still others avoiding display all together as something inappropriate, undesirable, or fraught with many bad practices in history and into living memory, encumbered with the nation-state model of interacting with other societies, often by armed conflict. What is most interesting about the instances of U.S. flags on display is the number of meanings, alone or in combinations, that can be seen and studied.
