Mrs Danvers

Nope, but I've seen a hotel who want to show how international they are having a plethora of national flags and then putting the U.S. flag in the middle on a taller flagpole. They are just fine with it.

kimilseung

A country expresses its opinion about other countries in numerous ways, why flags should be different, I don't know. It might at most times be undiplomatic, but to follow some ones rule about it concurrently with a combination of arms buildups, armed attacks, embargo, and other expressions of displeasure seems a bit silly.

Michael

That may be true but when adversaries are having peace talks such as the Iran Nuclear talks, flag protocol is normally not an issue but there were prolonged discussions over the shape of the negotiating table when the Vietnam Peace Talks were being negotiated.

Prolonged discussions over the shape of the negotiating table was finally resolved by the placement of two square tables separated by a round table.

Procedural questions cause difficulty at the peace talks - Dec 12, 1968 - HISTORY.com

sir_eccles

That reminds me of the Korean dmz. Apparently there is a building there which both sides can enter when they occassionaly need to talk face to face. Very carefully constructed down to the number and size of steps on either side.

scrubbedexpat097

With all these rules and regulations I think a "pole" is needed

Pulaski

That's a great idea, but they usually come with strings attached.

HDWill

There used to be small North and South Korean flags left in those buildings at all times, but North Korean soldiers started taking the S. Korean flags and shining their boots with them.

scrubbedexpat097

That idea is folded then.

Pulaski

Not necessarily. We could run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it.

scrubbedexpat097

Well I'm flagging now. This is getting too long winded for me.

username.exe

Yes there is, I have been in there.

The demarcation line actually goes right through the middle of the table.

Ash UK/US

I fly my Union Jack... side by side with the Stars and Stripes. in this house lives a US citizen (hubby), and British citizen (me)... our kids are half and half! I fly it with correct etiquette and have NO PROBLEM in doing so!

SultanOfSwing

I bet you googled that one expecting it to say Yorkshire, but were surprised when it came up as Antrim ...

That's quite a good idea - kind of like a graphic equalizer display of what countries I'm pissed off with today

We don't fly a flag outside, but I do have a Union Jack in my studio, which I intend, at some point, to pair up with the sort of unofficial, but used at football matches and the like Northern Ireland flag, when I get around to buying it.

Don't have a 'big' US flag, but they're well enough represented with all the mini flags my daughter has collected at various 4th of July parades, and the one I got at the supermarket that time I gave a fiver to a VFW bloke collecting.

Oakvillian

I have long been amused by the US's obsession with the "sanctity" of the flag, and the ease with which Americans can be wound up by people "desecrating" the Stars & Stripes. It all stems from having the Flag (definitely with a capital F) as per se the symbol of the country, rather than representing some other entity to which respect should be shown.

I learned something I didn't know the other day at a divisional Scout camp. In the States, I gather, the Boy Scouts will salute the empty flagpole after the flag is lowered at a formal closing ceremony, because the salute is to the flag itself (as, indeed is the allegiance pledge and all that goes with it). Whereas in Canada, as throughout the Commonwealth, the salute is always to what the flag represents - the Monarch, the Nation, whatever - rather than to the flag itself, so one never, ever salutes an empty flagpole - that would be disrespecting the entity represented by an absent flag, or something.

At multinational Scout meetings (we had some US visitors at this camp) you get a bit of confusion at the end as nobody is quite sure who is disrespecting whose tradition if only half the camp salutes at the close...

I don't know if this only applies to the Scout movement or if this is a universal thing. Can one of our resident vexillological pedants enlighten me?

newadventure

Oakvillian,
it is an eye-opener to see the protocol that goes with the 'Flag': how, when and under what lighting and weather conditions to fly it. I have just returned from a Cub Scout camp and was told that the camp salutes as the flag is lowered and end the salute when one of the colour guard have grabbed it at the bottom. I believe the colour guard then salute the empty flagpole briefly after they have folded the flag and before they retreat