12-0463_820815-03-16-ITA
The Federal Flag Code (PUBLIC LAW 94 - 344)
Section 4 (d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free…
…except the reason why Alessandro uses the American flag as a beach towel is because he loves America so much.
I live in the textile district in Lower Manhattan. Many of the stores and warehouses on my small street in Tribeca serve as distribution centers for American flags and bunting. On September 12, 2001 significant numbers of Americans demonstrated their patriotism by displaying the flag, but my block specifically could have easily counted a hundred flags of all sizes and shapes. It was quite the spectacle, but a very bizarre one, since my neighborhood was sealed off to non-residents right after the attack for a duration of about a month. I lived in a ghost town festooned in red white and blue.
Newspapers printed full pages of flags so people could use them in their windows, attached with Scotch tape. Tourist shops in Chinatown were selling cheap flags Made in Mexico, and Latino street merchants in the Financial District were peddling Chinese made versions. Such is the face of capitalism. On a recent visit, a german friend of mine found the prevalence of the national flag all around the city quite absurd since in Germany, flag waving is uncommon as it is reminiscent of a past when Nazis used their flags indiscriminately.
A few years ago, Senator Hillary Clinton introduced legislation to ban flag burning, where in fact the Federal Flag Code itself recommends disposing of used flags by burning.
Section 4(k) The Flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
I am personally not fond of flags, or of any distinction that separates people from each other. In simple terms, nations are artificial boundaries that resulted from consolidation of property and power through violence and alliances between and among rich and powerful men.
I understand perfectly well the love of one’s birthplace, as abstract as it may be, but I tend to look at the whole universe as my birthplace, and that all people should be treated with the same principles espoused by our own constitution. An American is no more valuable than any other human, and vice versa.
Frankly, I think Alessandro and his friend whose name escapes me, look quite nice draped with the American flag with the glorious Mediterranean behind them. After all they may not be using the flag according to the code, but their intentions were far from hostile.
Alessandro is roman. I met him when he was a passenger on a flight I was working as a flight attendant from New York to Rome and we became instant friends. I took this photograph a few months later, on a layover in Rome, when Alessandro and his shaved headed friend took me to the beach for a very memorable afternoon.
Sabaudia, Italy 15 August 1982
(written November 2006)
