Furor Over Upside-Down Flag In Marin

<snip>

San Anselmo resident Ford Greene is annoying some residents of the Ross Valley again, only instead of using a political sign he's enlisted the American flag to make his point.

After President Bush won re-election this week, Greene hung a large American flag upside down on the side of his building on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. That prompted more than a dozen angry phone calls to San Anselmo Town Hall and the police department, but there's nothing the town could do to force him to take the flag down.

"People seem angry about it and want something done," said Town Administrator Debbie Stutsman. But, she added, "It's a permitted use."

Greene knew the flag would cause a stir, and that was the last thing that would stop him. "Anytime a strong and honest statement of any sort is made, undoubtedly there is someone who is going to be offended," Greene said yesterday.

<snip>

Link: http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~2518015,00.html#



Personally, I think this is a GREAT idea!!! And I'm gonna do the same damn thing!

It's horrible, I say. Just horrible!

don't study their history or else they'd know what an upside down flag means.

what an upside down flag is...but hey! they're the TRUE patriots. yadda yadda...

so where can I get one of those avatars?

display the flag the way it's meant to be... on a half shirt or tube top or shaved into the side of a mullet!

...for the laugh. I've been so down for the past week, I really appreciate your humor.

that signifies distress.

:shrug:

upside down for distress....the homeowner's association went berserk

they kept asking me did I know it meant "country in distress"

Yep. I did. I said looking them in the eye.

Bush was selected 4 yrs ago, I put it in my front window upside down and it stayed there for 4 yrs. Once I came home and it had been knocked down by somebody obviously hitting the window hard enough to push it over. When Bush stole this election, I took it down because i cannot bare to look at it for another 4 yrs. I also knew what it was a symbol of.

I seen some DU'ers propose this idea but what message does it send? Sorry I don't know but can some one fill me in.

We are using the American flag upside down to show our opposition to the Bush regime.

'Poor loser". Sheesh.

Marin voted about 74 percent for Kerry.

I used to work in Fairfax. I know.

So they can bite me.

What is really appalling, and illegal, is the flying of tattered, torn or ragged flags. Also a pet peeve & illegal: the wingers who fly the flag but are too lazy to bring it in at sunset and too cheap to keep a light on it if they fly it at night.

"The flag should never be dipped to any person or thing. It is flown upside down only as a distress signal. ...

The flag should never have placed on it, or attached to it, any mark, insignia, letter, word, number, figure, or drawing of any kind."

http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-a/Upside%20down%20flag%20is%20distress%20signal%20-%209-28-01%20-%20NCTimes_net.htm

I found the Bush/Cheney 2004 signs to be quite disrespectful to the U.S. flag, on those signs the letter H was attached a distorted, incomplete version of the flag, as if BUSH supercedes America.

Bush is a traitor.

that were just big W's with the flag imprinted on them. Just another case of right wing hypocrisy...

decorated with old glory laying in the garbage.

180

only had 20 stars. wtf?

It signals distress.

:evilgrin:

I am going to keep it up indefinitely, hope someone decides to complain, as I am visible from a busy 4 lane road here in Stow,OH.
My son found this link, very interesting what the storm troopers are capable of:its by william rivers pitt:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2537.htm
hey all of you "sore losers" lets get those flags turned upsidedown so it will remind (and Piss-Off) the local idiots.

That would get a lot of people's attention. Might get a few slashed tars too.

American Patriot

:-)

:kick:

I told my wife that i wanted to put up a flag pole and fly it at half mast for the next four fucking years. I want to illuminate it so it can be seen at night also.

I've had an upside-down flag hanging in my cubicle for 4 days... nobody has said anything yet.

It's also my desktop wallpaper.

quite poignant, actually.

There is also a upside down flag avatar. Swith it to upsidedownflag.gif .

I'm such an idiot sometimes, LOL!!!!

:dunce:

... oh, no, wait - that's illegal isn't it?

It's First Amendment GOTCHA!!

So I guess it's leagal to rip it up too.

But then people wouldn't get to see it much that way.

Hangin there for all to see, is much more effective.

:shrug:

You were being sarcastic... right?

*Sheesh.*

:dunce:

"Czelusta, who corresponds with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, believes it is wrong to force people to view signs or symbolic expressions...
'If people want to burn effigies they usually do it at a march, Czelusta said. 'I can choose not to go. This is on my way to work and it's in my face.'"

People who think like Czelusta are the reason this nation is in such distress. Greene is a true patriot for reasons they'll never understand.

I don't want to look at that POS either, but they have a right to put it there.

Ha ha, it's on an old single-wide trailer, like the chickens voting for Colonel Sanders, Stockholm Syndrome, you name it.

I'm going to find the most tattered, ragged, dirty, trashed U.S. flag I can find, and fly it from my house.

Anyone promoting this idea nationwide yet?

:hi:

:kick:

when everyone was plastering flags everywhere! Took me a while just to be able to buy one - they were all selling out.

Pissed off a lot of the neighbors, the ones with flags improperly displayed on F'ing everything! I just smiled and told them to look up flag etiquette. They started taking some of those improperly plastered ones down.

I don't fly mine all of the time, was looking foreward to putting it rightside up this year. :cry:

I got the idea from DU, saw it on someones post and looked up the what it meant - since I had no clue. See, always learning here.

I am doing it too. 'Cept, I live in a hidden area where no one would see it.. Soooooooooooooo, I'm getting one of those sticky film decal thingys with a flag on it and turning it upside down and placing it in my vehicle rear window. Did that last winter too.

There may even be bumper stickers like that for sale too.

Ooo, ooo, I also purchased some DIY badge kits so I can display my sentiments on my lapel..the message can be switched off to say something else at will. :evilgrin:

I used to have one of those clingy flags around here somewhere. Hope I didn't throw it away now that I have a good use for it. I guess I could just print off a flag from Print Shop and tape it in the window upside down. I guess I could do that in my windows at home too now that I think about it.

I'll be on a quest for another PDQ.

Today, I went out for the first time in a whole week. I was a bit wobbly from all the emotions errupting from me from the BLACK TUESDAY event.

I reapplied my anti-bush magnetic stickers to my van AND I cobbled together a quick badge using one of those vinyl conference name badge thingys with a pin back. The "greeting" said:

Welcome to the New American Fascism~~enjoy your stay~ I put in on my blouse and went shopping. Yowzers, I got a few stern stares and a struck up a few positive conversations as well.:D

...I WON'T BACK DOWN

I'm going to find a flag bumpersticker and paste it upside down on my car until 2008. Let's make it a rage!

I want to make a decal or just paint the upside down flag on a shirt. I should get more than one though, just in case anyone sees me in it and wants one, too.

Oh and regarding the guy that did this in Marin--RIGHT ON!

every du'er should see this. It's so cool...:)

I think I might do the same thing here. This village would be in an UPROAR.

...making it illegal to fly it any other way than with the stars on the top.

You know it's coming. You just know it is...

Just put them on upside down.



Buy a pack of them and put them on others' back car windows, openly or surreptiously, as well. :)

And keep those cards and letters going...




As for our flag...

§ 8. Respect for flag

(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.


http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode04/usc_sec_04_00000008----000-.html

kick

Only non-Christians don't worship Bush, haven't you heard?