How many American flags are still made in the USA?

[Deja Q]

And not China or some annexed country that allows a sleazy corporation to inaccurately stamp "Made in USA" on it?

And other countries; do they make their flags in their own countries? Or ship it out to China because their allegience is also to China and not the countries in which they were born and raised?

[NanceGreggs]

1. Funny you should ask ...

.. this VERY topic was the subject of a 'rant' I posted here at DU a few weeks ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=698061&mesg_id=698061

[Deja Q]

3. Much thanks for the link! Highly informative.

Pity it's archived; I'd have K&R'ed it.

[TahitiNut]

4. That's an awesome rant! (Laughing with gritted teeth is hard.)

:applause: :applause:

[NanceGreggs]

6. Our fellow DUer, liveoaktx ...

... did a podcast of the rant, which can be found here:

http://www.canofun.com/cof/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=17887

I think she did a truly AWESOME job - her voice is sweet, but with just the right amount of 'sarcasm' clinging to every word.

If you listen and agree, please send her a PM saying so. She did an INCREDIBLE job, IMHO, and deserves the credit for it! The podcast was entirely her idea, and I was truly honoured that she chose my piece!

And to get back to the point of this thread, which is a legitimate one, why on earth are we outsourcing the manufacture of our own FLAGS?

If ANYTHING reflects how badly our country has gone downhill in regards to outsourcing jobs, I can't think of a single thing that is a more obvious demonstration of what is WRONG with this administration, and the people who support it.

Or maybe The Idiot can explain it away as yet 'another one of those jobs that Americans don't want to do'!!!

[TahitiNut]

7. The flag issue is (pun intended) EMBLEMATIC of the corruption infesting

... our nation and the world. Patriotism is but another hypocritical 'value' (the last refuge of scoundrels) clothing the Naked Emperor of corporatism - which has allegiance solely to profit and power.

I have repeatedly displayed the arrival of the Plantation Economy in the US. Nothing I've seen more aptly portrays in an empirical fashion the three-decades-long rise of colonial corporatism that enriches the wealthy and impoverishes the rest. We now have a more inequitable distribution of income in the US than the People's Republic of China, aka China Inc.! (Japan, Germany, Canada, and France are representative of far more just economic systems. Please note that that is unified Germany!) Here it is ...

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

2. Well, HypnoToad I was at a protest last Wednesday

at "Fat" Denny Hastert's office in Batavia, IL regarding the "Immigration Reform Bill" and the American flag I was holding had "made in China" on it.. I thought that was pretty ironic...

[Hekate]

5. The ones I bought at Costco 3 years ago were made in Canada

I bought half a dozen as my donation to the local VFP, because when they march, they like to take back the flag from the wingnut warmongers.

They are lightweight, made of nylon or polyester, and the design is printed on, not sewn. They were $6 apiece, right within my budget.

All this to the eternal annoyance of one of our members (a Korean War vet, and a wonderful supporter of the group) who is a stickler for flag protocol.

However the flags made of three colors of heavy fabric with the stars and stripes all stitched on, those flags, if you can find them at all, cost close to $50 apiece. I have no idea where they are made, because I can't afford them.

And I figure Canada is at least on the same continent. ;-)

Hekate

[NanceGreggs]

8. I live in Toronto ...

... with my husband, who is also a fellow American.

I brought an American flag home from the States about ten years ago, a BIG FLAG, which we displayed on our front porch on the 4th of July and other American holidays.

On September 11th, without a word exchanged, my husband and I took the flag out of the cedar chest where it was stored, and put it up in front of the house. IT's so big, it literally took up the whole front porch.

We left it up - it became such a neighbourhood icon, when we ordered pizza or Chinese take-out and gave our address, we'd always hear, "Oh, you mean the house with the flag?"

On the night GWB announced that he would be invading Iraq, again without a word being exchanged, my husband and I took down the flag. It has never been displayed again.

We are not ashamed of being Americans. We just don't want anyone to read that flag display as a sign that we support what this Administration is doing in Iraq, or anywhere else in the world.

That is a truly sad commentary on the state of our country, thanks to BU$HCO.

One of my most prized possessions is a 48-star flag (which is hanging on the wall of my home office, right behind me) which was given to us by a friend here in Canada, who inherited it from a US ancestor.

It reminds me that there was a time when our flag did not represent torture, secret prisons, the invasion of other nations, and the outsourcing of flag-making to those who would do it with less reverence, but 'on the cheap'.

That flag will be passed down to my children. I hope that when they inherit it, it will again stand for democracy and freedom - and not a 'fast buck'.

[Hekate]

10. It is the saddest damned thing, isn't it?

I was never a flag-waver, but I was always proud of being an American. Exasperated quite often, but felt we could ultimately work things out, and that our Constitution and Bill of Rights were living documents meant to be rediscovered and reinvented in every generation.

I wish our national symbol was still made in our own country -- but then I wish a whole lot of goods were still made in the USA.

It's not just rage that I feel for what Bushco has done to our country, but a real deep-down grief.

One of the reasons I took up with the VFP in the run-up to the invasion was the way they would march with the US flag during our town's massive protests. Every one of the vets had risked his or her neck to defend that flag and what it stood for -- some bear lifelong injuries -- and I agreed wholeheartedly with them that the flag is neither the property of the right wing "patriots" nor is it a corporate logo for Bush-Cheney Inc. It belongs to all of us. It's ours.

By all that's holy, it's ours.

As for Toronto, my husband and I have thought long and hard about moving north, but we don't travel well and will probably wait until too late. My sister and her husband have been in Canada several times on business, most recently to Toronto, and are keeping their eyes open for a likely city or town.

Hekate

[musical_soul]

9. The funniest thing I ever saw.....

was a towel with the American flag on it with fineprint of "Made in France" down at the bottom. Soon, we can just say "United States: Made in France".