Mimi Wears the American Flag

This whole exercise began in Summerland, California, a little coastal town south of Santa Barbara.  Its main street is lined with antique shops and American flags.  They adorn almost every storefront, restaurant and gas station in town.  A small park is dedicated to the soldiers who died in World War I,  and a large flag is always flown at half-mast in their honor.

Perhaps the sky was a little more blue that day, a little more clear, but my eyes focused on how beautiful the red and white stripes of the flag were against the blue sky.  I snapped pictures up and down the street and didn't go into a single shop.  I wanted to go home immediately, find my American flag, and make a skirt out of it.  After all, stripes were everywhere this summer from Prada to J. Crew.

I draped the flag on Mimi, but before I actually cut a seam in the back, she screamed at me.  "Stop.  Don't you know this is illegal?"

"But you see flags on clothes all the time."

"Duh, not real ones!"

Well, Mimi's no dummy.  I did my research and found out the U.S. Flag Code clearly states:  "The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery."  This is federal law; however, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled against any punitive enforcement for those who break this law because of First Amendment freedom of speech rights.   They leave punishment up to individual states.  In California, I discovered it is a misdemeanor to cast "contempt" on the American flag.  Is making a beautiful skirt "contempt?"

The truth is, you do see American flag prints all the time, so I didn't really have to use the real thing.  So like the good citizen I am, I folded it up (properly!) and put it back in the linen closet.  I found this cute tank at Urban Outfitters instead.  Mimi is relieved!