Fun With Flags
When I was young, like many children of the time, I collected postage stamps, back when you had to lick the stamp to get it to stick to the envelope.
The Harris company published albums with pictures of all the stamps issued over a certain time, and you then put the stamp you had over the black and white image in the album. They still make those today, although I’ve long ago stopped collecting.
At various times, the postal service would issue series of stamps in a theme…all 50 state flags, for example. Back when it only cost 6 cents to mail a letter, there was a series of stamps with images of flags from the Revolutionary War era. That was back in 1968, and the series included a version of the “don’t tread on me” flag, the original 13 stars-in-a-circle flag, one with a half moon on a blue field that said “liberty,” and so on.
One of those was of a simple pine tree on a white background with the phrase, “An Appeal to Heaven” on it. The description called it the “Washington’s Cruisers” flag from 1775. Others have called it the “pine tree flag for the navy” and one source says it’s still the official maritime ensign for the commonwealth of Massachusetts—though in today’s era, they might be changing that as we speak.
For forty years, from 1964 to 2004, that flag flew outside San Francisco City Hall as part of a collection of historic flags.
And in 2020, it was often seen at various Black Lives Matter events.
But that last part was forgotten because of the current narrative. Some who disputed the 2020 presidential election used the flag, and that means it’s vile and anyone associated with it cannot be trusted…particularly a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Never mind that for years, members of Congress—including the current Speaker—have included the flag in their offices at the Capitol.
I agree that justices should steer clear of any activity that suggests favoritism or political position. But since some folks on both the left and right used the flag in 2020, perhaps it means the justice is in fact right down the middle.
