Posts from — July 2012

Love What It Means; Love How It’s Made

by Colonial Posts

Take every opportunity to fly a flag. At Colonial Flag we specialize in custom flags and flag poles. If you need a flag for your business, church, civic organization, school, military base or home, then the flag you want is here in any size or material, whether it be polyester, nylon or cotton. We will also be able to outfit you with precisely what you need to display your flag indoors or outdoors.
Few images in America today proclaim the weighty feelings or the lofty ideals, held by American patriots like the American flag. Passion, Faith, Hope, Solidarity, Unity, Independence and Sacrifice are represented in the colors and design of Old Glory, which we take great pride in producing every day. The hundreds of thousands of American flags, which we create also meet all official specifications and are sewn and shipped with that same pride.
It doesn’t just have to be an American flag, though. Colonial Flag can create any custom flag: a family or company emblem, a school flag, a city or state flag. We can produce a flag with any design specified as well as provide you with a flagpole that would be right for you and your group.
Flags are meant to endure, to stay strong and beautiful. A flag is the physical representation of that thing in which you have great pride. Should you not also be proud of the way that its made and presented? Come to Colonial Flag and let us provide you with a flag of which you could be proud.

July 31, 2012 No Comments

Aurora, Colorado Does Not Mourn Alone

by John Hartvigsen

The unthinkable has happened again. A deranged shooter in a packed theater auditorium and the nation mourns. We lowered flags to half-staff. The people of Aurora, the community of Denver and the citizens of Colorado are bewildered, hurting and grieving in the face of a senseless act. By lowering our flags half way down the poles, we tell them that they do not mourn alone.

Why do we follow this ritual of mourning? We know the custom of placing a flag at half-mast began at sea, a practice that goes back at least to the sixteenth century. Its origin and meaning, however, go back so far that they may be lost in the mists of time. One nautical source explains that a ship’s “rigging was slacked off as a sign of mourning.” Yardarms were also placed askew upon masts as if to say, “We mourn a death; we can’t keep things shipshape, because we are grieving.” A flag flying at full mast on a ship under full sail is a proud and beautiful sight that says all is right with the world. A flag at half-mast says, “Give me some time; I hurt because of my loss.”

When I looked up at my flag this morning, it hung limply—half way down from the top of the pole where it usually flies proud and strong. The flag appeared sad, hurting and in grief. To friends and families in Aurora it says, “You do not mourn alone.”

Symbolic meanings evolve. Today in the America, placing a flag at half-staff or at half-mast is growing to honor and remember those who have died in the past. For a growing number of holidays, Americans want to place flags at half-staff to mark tragedies of the past. The U.S. Flag Code originally ordered the display of the U.S. flag at half-staff on only one holiday, Memorial Day, and then only until noon. Flying the flag at half-staff was reserved to signal current bereavement. I like that meaning because it reflects how I feel now when we mourn together as a nation.

When I look up at my flag hanging limply at half-staff, its halyards appear loose like the rigging of ancient ships slaked off in mourning. My flag is in mourning to tell our neighbors in Colorado, “You are not alone.”

July 21, 2012 2 Comments

Planting the U.S. Flag on the Moon

by John Hartvigsen

We humans attach great meaning to planting our flags in documenting our travels. In centuries past explorers raised their flags to claim territory for their sovereigns. The image of Columbus raising a flag as he stepped ashore in the New World has become iconic. More recently explorers and adventurers have posted national flags more to announce to all, “We were here first!” Arctic explorer Robert Peary, for example, had a forty-five star U.S. flag which he carried with him as he traversed the Polar Regions. Upon reaching key sites, he cut out pieces of his flag to leave behind. His wife would later patch the flag with white cloth before Peary’s next exploration. Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay carried the flags of Great Britain and Nepal in the first ascent of Mount Everest.

It was, therefore, not surprising that American astronauts carried the American flag to the moon beginning with the first moon landing on July 20^th in 1969. Announcing “the eagle has landed” Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans on the surface of the moon. Later during the historic first moon walk the two men planted the Stars and Stripes.

In all the United Stated has completed six manned lunar missions, twelve American Astronauts have stood on lunar soil, and for each moon landing a ceremony took place as they posted U.S. flags to announce to the world, “We were here.” We don’t know when humans will return to the moon, but when they do six American flags will still dot the lunar surface to remind them of those who came before.

July 19, 2012 No Comments

Posts from — July 2012

Love What It Means; Love How It’s Made

Aurora, Colorado Does Not Mourn Alone

Planting the U.S. Flag on the Moon

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