First, don’t panic. You and your flag maybe wrapped around the pole, but don’t worry. Everything will be OK. I know that a furled flag can be infuriating, but please don’t lower your standards. That would be tantamount to a surrender and we can’t have any of that. Thank you very much. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good and if these days you find yourself heading into the wind, know this. For many of your fellow citizens this gathering breeze that you now face is a breath of fresh air. Remember, now more than ever, this is their flag too.

Some people might resort to using spinners or if you would spin, but such things only leave me feeling dizzy. Anti-flag wrapping devices just sound divisive and I think that we can all agree that there is already too much divisiveness in politics today. Besides who would want to adopt something that begins with anti-flag? Sounds like it is against the flag to me. I also have a problem with the moniker, flag free. Free from what? This sounds like yet another call for empty flagpoles. See lowering your standard above for how I feel about that. There is nothing sadder than the rhythmic clanging of brass fittings against a bare metal pole. I won’t even comment on—how to hang your flag straight.

For too long now elements of our society have wrapped themselves in the flag. Laying exclusive claim to this common cloth, symbol of the fabric of our society. Aiming at the exclusion of their fellow Americans. This gun-toting clique is giving the flag a bad name. Instead of respecting the flag as a symbol of national unity, of thirteen united colonies and the fifty United States, they are using the flag to divide us, as if it is their flag and not ours. They are wrong. This is our flag, our country and our right to live freely and fairly under it. The flag is a symbol, a symbol that represents us, that stands for all of us. It is a material object representing something abstract. It represents the ideals upon which this nation was founded. It represents the goal of the more perfect union yet to come.