Flag-theme clothing is a wreched excess
By Joe Kirby
Editorial Page Editor
Marietta Daily Journal
Republished by permission

(Editor's Note: This items previously appeared in The Marietta Daily Journal, and is re-published by permission. As an additional aside, we agree thoroughly the flag-theme clothing should never be worn as clothing!)

MARIETTA, August 17, 2001 -- Are flag-themed duds sartorial splendor or wretched excess?

Would you use the United States flag as a doormat? How about as a towel to wipe off sweat? Or as a loincloth?

Only the most rabid anti-American types would do such things.

What about wearing a pair of flip-flops printed with a U.S. flag motif? Or running a foot race, say, the Peachtree Road Race held every July 4 in Atlanta, while wearing a pair of gym trunks designed to look like Old Glory?

Most folks don't seem to have much of a problem with such items. But where do we - and where should we - draw the line? At what point does honoring flag and country via one's wardrobe become sacrilege, even if unintended? It was a moot point when I was growing up. There were no special Independence Day-type outfits available that I can recall. You just wore whatever clothes you owned that happened to be red, white and blue. But with the end of the Vietnam War and the return to patriotism in succeeding decades, that changed.

The July 4 holiday is now the one day a year when even those on the far left end of the political spectrum - the "blame America first" folks usually embarrassed by overt displays of patriotism - happily don the red, white and blue. Ditto for the anti-government militia types on the far right.

The U.S. Flag Code prohibits the use of the flag as wearing apparel. And in fairness, I don't think I've ever seen anyone wearing an actual flag. I do remember seeing pictures of hippies and yippies draped in flags during anti-war demonstrations in the late 1960s, their way of thumbing their nose at the "establishment."

It's now common to see a full array of "Uncle Sam"-type shirts, blouses, hats, jackets, ties and even boots bedecked with stars and stripes on patriotic holidays like last week's. In fact, I even bought a tie this spring modeled on an earlier version of the U.S. flag.

It wasn't my first attempt to combine love of country and sartorial splendor. Rolling back the clock a few decades, I recall that as a teen I once used magic markers to re-color one of my high-top sneakers with red and white stripes and the other with white stars on a blue background. Why? I had recently seen the movie "Woodstock," in which singer Joe Cocker made quite a fashion statement for the time by wearing boots with the same motif. But his boots wound up looking a whole lot better than my sneakers. You don't know just how stupid sneakers can look until you've painted all over them with magic markers.

Speaking of footwear, some of the hottest items at a well-known chain of department stores this summer are U.S. Flag-style flip-flops. I don't deny that they look sharp. In fact, they look real sharp: one deep blue with stars, the other featuring crimson and white stripes.

But I can't see myself ever putting on a pair. It's one thing to wear shoes or boots on which the flag design covers the "uppers." It's another to wear a flip-flop or sandal in which your foot is actually on the flag motif. Not only are you walking on the flag, so to speak, you're dragging it through puddles, mud and whatever else. You might as well drop a U.S. flag on your doorstep and use it as a doormat.

And though there are always a few runners who wear flag-style running shorts and shirts in the Peachtree Road Race (or even jogging through their neighborhoods), it seems wrong to use the flag as a sponge for soaking up your sweat. What's next? Flag-motifed underwear, diapers and feminine hygiene products?

In sum, I think we gain more as a country than we lose via the sartorial splurging around July 4. It's colorful and it's overwhelmingly well-intended. But you have to draw a line somewhere - and flag flip-flops is where I've drawn mine.

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