When the news broke<\/a> that an upside-down American flag, a protest image carried by the Jan. 6 rioters, had flown above the house of a Supreme Courtroom justice, some noticed it as an indication of how badly the courtroom had been corrupted. Others<\/a> noticed it as an indication of how badly the information media had been corrupted. For me, the unfurling scandal was a testomony to the enduring expressive energy of flags.<\/p>\n

According to Justice Samuel Alito<\/a>, the choice by his spouse, Martha-Ann, to hoist that inverted commonplace was an expression of misery over a private battle with a neighbor. Quickly it emerged<\/a> that she had flown one other provocative flag, the Pine Tree flag. And later, caught on a secret recording, Mrs. Alito expressed<\/a> indignation over the sight of one more flag, the rainbow Pleasure flag She fantasized aloud about conveying her disapproval by means of, amazingly, one other flag, considered one of her personal invention that may bear the Italian phrase for disgrace.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exceptional to me how, in a desacralized and image-saturated period, these easy gadgets can nonetheless encourage such intense ardour. It\u2019s additionally exceptional how versatile they are often as symbols. That is very true of the American flag, whose purple, white and blue is as laden with that means as it’s contestable.<\/p>\n

That flag is extra seen on the anniversary of the nation\u2019s founding than on another day of the 12 months. It\u2019s in entrance of presidency buildings, within the palms of parade-goers, within the home windows of retailers and eating places. It is going to be worn on T-shirts, burned in protest and sculpted in cake frosting. It\u2019s a seeming expression of unanimity, however everybody brings to the flag a unique set of associations. They usually\u2019re all proper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Pine Tree flag, which had its origins within the Revolutionary Struggle, had been not too long ago claimed by Black Lives Matter protesters<\/a> and Christian theocrats alike earlier than it was brandished on the steps of the Capitol by Jan. 6 rioters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Even flags whose that means appears unambiguous can tackle totally different textures relying upon who’s flying them and why. The rainbow stripes of the Pleasure flag has lengthy been a L.G.B.T.Q. image, however as newer renditions appeared<\/a>, including stripes and symbols to indicate racial variety, transgender identification and a broader spectrum of sexuality, the unique can, in sure contexts, be considered as downright conservative.<\/p>\n

The American flag, which Mrs. Alito flew the other way up, is definitely our most potent nationwide image. The Pledge of Allegiance is addressed to it, and our nationwide anthem is a paean to its endurance. The flag was born out of America\u2019s revolution, surged in popularity during the Civil War<\/a>, and was belatedly standardized<\/a> some years earlier than the nation entered World Struggle I.<\/p>\n

Virtually all probably the most well-known depictions emerge from wartime, from Emanuel Leutze\u2019s \u201c Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/a>\u201d to Joe Rosenthal\u2019s 1945 {photograph} showing Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima<\/a>. In 1954, utilizing a mix of wax and coloration on scraps of newspaper, Jasper Johns sharply pulled the banner a unique route. His \u201c Flag<\/a>\u201d stripped the Stars and Stripes of its rapid connotations, turning it into an object whose very familiarity made it inscrutable. Mr. Johns would return to the flag dozens of occasions, and every rendering took on a brand new tone: \u201c White Flag<\/a>\u201d is elegiac, \u201c Three Flags<\/a>\u201d is playful and confrontational, \u201c Flag<\/a>\u201d (1994) is contemplative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The flag\u2019s capability to comprise a number of meanings turned apparent within the Sixties. Civil rights activists used it to stake a declare to America\u2019s guarantees of freedom and equality; the white supremacists who beat and threatened them underneath the identical banner laid declare to an opposing set of American guarantees. The flag is layered sufficient to be carried by each.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The antiwar motion at occasions held the flag aloft as a hopeful image of peace. Different occasions, the flag was inverted in dissent, or burned as a denunciation.<\/p>\n

In 1966, Marc Morrel, a Marine Corps veteran, introduced a sequence of sculptures incorporating the American flag. Sure with rope or wound in chains, the strangled flags strongly prompt corpses. Mr. Morrel\u2019s suggestion of an unfree and decaying America got here to the eye of the New York police and the gallery proprietor who exhibited it was ultimately convicted of \u201ccasting contempt\u201d on the flag. (The conviction was overturned in 1974.)<\/p>\n

In 1968, Abbie Hoffman, an activist and provocateur, was the first person arrested<\/a> \u2014 for a flag shirt he wore<\/a> to reply questions earlier than the Home Committee on Un\u2010American Actions \u2014 underneath a brand new federal legislation in opposition to flag desecration. His conviction was overturned on attraction, and over the following couple of a long time, the Supreme Courtroom would repeatedly protect<\/a> folks\u2019s proper to make use of the flag to specific themselves. In spite of everything, it belongs to them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n