By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
It was late at night as I halted my car at a four-way-stop in Winchester when I spotted an American flag flying upside down in front of a private residence.
Then I also noticed a campaign sign right below it for a former president trying to regain that office this year. Honestly, my initial response was to complain to the homeowner that such a display of the flag was disrespectful and had no place in politics.
But common sense prevailed, and I realized that banging on someone’s door in the wee hours of the morning was especially dangerous in these times of political extremism.
As a veteran and a student of military history, I know that flying a U. S. flag upside down has been a sign of distress for the country or the person flying it.
But, as I drove away, I begrudgingly acknowledged that some folks are using this old gimmick in response to political uncertainty or as a means of showing their displeasure with the direction of our country.
I’ve never liked the notion of “symbolic speech” which the U. S. Supreme Court has recognized as being protected by the First Amendment since the 1969 cases involving school children wearing black armbands or street protesters burning the U. S. flag, both in protest of the Vietnam War.
The U.S. flag code, which is not legally enforceable, specifically says that the flag is not to be inverted “except as a signal of dire distress in instance of extreme danger to life or property.”
The first court-sanctioned use of an inverted flag as a means of protest happened in 1974 when a college student in Washington State was allowed to fly it from his dormitory room with a black peace sign attached.
Displaying the upside down American flag as a symbol of political protest has been seen in all sorts of demonstrations from the storming of the U.S. Capitol in 2021 to the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022.
Sadly, I fear that some who disrespect the flag in that manner are intent on changing our form of government, even by force if necessary. And that scares the hell out of me.(Contact keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.)
My flag been upside down since trump.took office. And I do know about the flag. Extensively, my bday is on flag day and I served 12 years. I will continue to fly it until trump is gone and done destroying this country.