this drives me absolutely up the wall. it’s so ridiculously simple, and yet people cannot grasp this — and their failure actually contradicts what they are actually trying to do. people. it’s not hard:

WHEN YOU DISPLAY THE UNITED STATES FLAG ON A VEHICLE, SUCH AS AN AUTOMOBILE, THE UNION (that’s the blue part) GOES ON THE UPPER CORNER IN THE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL.

yes, i know it looks funny that way, when you have the flag “backwards” on the right side of a vehicle. but really, that’s correct. they even have a name for it. it’s the “reversed flag.” you see, the flag is supposed to look as though it is flying in the wind, and that means that the union is on an imaginary staff at the front of the car, boat, airplane, or CTA rail car, causing the “wind” (from the motion of the vehicle) to “blow” the flag backwards. if you don’t believe me, look at the starboard side of Air Force One, for god’s sake.

i am also really sick of people who put a flag on their car and let it fly in all conditions until it’s shredded to ribbons and destroyed, which is just completely wrong (and not to mention it’s a pretty obvious lack of respect, unlike the reverse flag which i suppose, if you didn’t grow up in illinois and weren’t forced to pass an exam on how to treat the flag in order to leave the 8th grade, you might conceivably have missed the memo on — unless you’re the guy who’s painting the flags on things, in which case you really ought to have read the freaking rules). and don’t get me started on people who fly their flags at night without lighting (also completely and obviously wrong).

i am just tired of people displaying the flag completely and flagrantly wrong. i think it’s nice that you like to show your support for the US by displaying the flag… but you gotta do it right, or it’s pointless and disrespectful, which was — i’m just guessing here — probably not your intent.

please. for pity’s sake. don’t make me come over there and sic the American Legion on you.