15 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Forget the American flag. These are the flags to fly on July 4 to celebrate liberty
If you want to celebrate your independence this July 4, put your American flags away.
Instead, fly a California flag. Or, even better, run up the banner of your county or municipality. The local level is where you stand the best chance of holding onto your liberty.
Because the occupier of the White House never stops declaring that he, not we Californians, are the proper rulers of California.
Violating law and the Constitution, President Donald Trump maintains that he can put the military in charge of Los Angeles, strip our schools of billions, tell our universities what to teach, impose tariffs on our businesses at his whim, overrule voter-approved environmental laws, deport our immigrant neighbors — even legal residents and U.S. citizens, take health care from our poor, claw back funds from our localities, steal billions from high-speed rail and even decide who gets to compete in high school track meets.
It is altogether fitting and proper that Californians pull down the flag on the Fourth. Because Trump almost perfectly resembles the lawlessness of King George III that inspired the Declaration of Independence 249 years ago. The 'long train of abuses and usurpations' listed in the declaration are familiar today — 'he has refused his Assent to Laws … he has obstructed the Administration of Justice … For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world … He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.'
Pulling down the U.S. flag would be even more powerful if California's governments did it, too. It also would be an act of defiance — not just of this new American dictatorship, but also of outdated 1953 state flags laws that unjustly paint California as subservient to the United States.
Those flag laws say that both American and Californian flags must be displayed 'in all rooms where any court or any state, county, or municipal commission holds any sessions,' 'upon or in front of … each public building belonging to the State, a county, or a municipality' and 'at the entrance or upon the grounds or upon the administration building' of schools.
And when both flags are used together, they must be of the same size — but with the American flag 'placed in the position of first honor,' according to Section 436. 'If only one flagpole is used, the National Flag shall be above the State Flag.'
C.C. Marin, director of the Independent California Institute, encourages challenges to the custom of American flag supremacy and urges us just to fly the California flag instead.
'California's state flag is a powerful symbol of resistance and unity in the face of a cruel, lawless presidential administration,' Marin wrote recently. 'Flags remind us who's in charge. California is not and has never been a subsidiary of the federal government. … Voluntarily flying our own flag below the American flag is literally a symbol of inferiority and compliance.'
Marin suggests that charter cities — which have their own constitutions, take the lead in pulling down American flags because they are exempt from flag laws. Special districts — governments that carry out a special duty, like running a hospital or a utility — also don't have to fly the American flag, Marin notes.
For other jurisdictions, where the flag laws apply, Marin has suggestions. First, Californians could insist that state and local governments follow the flag law provisions that the American flag and the California flag must be the same size when they are flown together. That rule is violated in Sacramento, including at the Capitol, where the American flag is bigger than the California flag. Perhaps lawsuits could force compliance.
Second, Californians and their governments should consider flying the American flag upside down — which is legal. Doing so is 'a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property,' according to the U.S. Flag Code. The nascent American dictator's military invasion of California obviously qualifies as extreme danger.
On a personal note, I love flying flags outside my home, but I haven't decided what I'm doing for the Fourth. Right now, the Canadian flag is up (I value the True North as an ally, even though Trumpists don't), but I may switch to the California flag or the Los Angeles County flag.
Or I might raise the Earth Flag, a half-century-old flag showing a photo of Earth taken during the Apollo missions. The flag expresses our planetary commitment to all living things, though I'd fly it in support of the democratically sovereign Humboldt County city of Arcata.
Voters there approved Measure M to raise the Earth Flag above the U.S. flag in 2022. That measure is being challenged in court. Meanwhile, the Trump regime just sent out an order barring U.S. government institutions from flying 'activist' flags.
Which makes flying the Earth Flag, or other banners of your choice, the perfect holiday expression of independence.
