19 Comments on “Athena on Flag Day”

1. Aw, more great pictures of Athena.

   Reading “Flag Day” always starts the Housemartins song in my mind. It’s still one of the world’s most bitter and beautiful political songs.

2. Also, it’s my birthday. :)

3. Happy birthday!

4. That kind of cuteness has to be coached, it just has to be.

5. Sorry John, While she is as cute as a button, the flag should never touch the ground, no matter if it is a cute little elf allowing it. Men have died to keep the flag from the dirt, the least we can do is respect that.

   Other than that, grat pictures.

6. Bill Marcy:

   “Sorry John, While she is as cute as a button, the flag should never touch the ground, no matter if it is a cute little elf allowing it.”

   I’ll let Athena field this one, Bill:

   “Well, of course no one should do that, because if you let it drop to the ground, then that means you don’t respect your country’s flag. And the only reason you can burn it is if it is all like tore up. And if you burn it for any other reason it’s just stupid. Don’t you dare. Oh and by the way, I didn’t let it drop to the ground, and I definitely did not let it burn.”

   Incidentally, after we were done talking these pictures, I showed her the proper way to fold it and put it away. So, you know. Relax.

7. Good Girl!

   As a retired Marine, I am really proud of you!

8. Bill Marcy,

   I really hope the men who died did so protecting what the flag represents and not the physical object itself.

   Personally I’ve never intentionally let the flag touch the ground but I know that the flag is a symbol of what I respect.

9. Hmm, I dunno John, you’re coming awfully close to some of the subsections in Section 4 here:

   http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/flagcode.html

   :P

   Of course, I happen to think that a young child delightfully wrapping herself in a big flag is wonderfully patriotic…

10. Steve,

    I think the flag code is kinda like the Bible – some people like me try to look at the big picture and respect the big things and some people go for the details.

    Around these parts I see a fair amount of minor flag violations, mostly by businesses, but I tend to let them go. They are violations like tattered flags and flags left up overnight in the dark. Mostly neglectful things.

11. Tripp,

    The Flag itself is the thing of respect, it is not jsut a symbol, but a living embodiment of those ideals (or as close as you can get to living, in a non-living kinda way .)

    In Lebanon, I watched a man run out onto a pile of rubble that was our barracks to retrieve the flag form it’s fallen state, myself and my fellow Marines provided cover for him, it was more important than perimeter security at the time. , what can you do.

12. …so…much…cute…

    If making an LJ icon out of pictures of someone else’s kid wouldn’t be rude, creepy, a violation of copyright, and all around wierd, I’d totally go make a ‘too cute for words’ flag day set right now.

13. Bill Marcy

    In Lebanon, I watched a man run out onto a pile of rubble that was our barracks to retrieve the flag form it’s fallen state, myself and my fellow Marines provided cover for him, it was more important than perimeter security at the time

    Yeah then there’s that picture I remember seeing a few times of some Marines raising the flag on Mt Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Most don’t know the history of that flag raising and think it was placed there at the end of the battle. But it wasn’t.

    The Marines had to take that mountain first immediately after landing to secure the beachhead through which more men and materials would be brought. Without that beachhead, the battle for Iwo Jima was lost.

    The Marines fought a literal uphill battle that was bought by the yard in blood for four days because the Japanese were dug in well.
    The landing took place on Feb 19th. The flag was raised on Feb 23rd. Iwo Jima wasn’t declared secured for another month.

    To give a historical perspective, during the battle for Iwo Jima, 7,000 US marines were killed and they suffered 26,000 casualties. One battle in one theater.

    Of the six men shown in the picture raising the flag on Mt Suribachi (Block, Bradley, Hayes, Gagnon, Sousley & Strank) two (Sousley & Strank) would die in battle before the island was secured.

    The raising of that flag inspired everyone who saw it and was an incredible morale boost for the men in the month-long battle to come.

    Call him drunken Ira Hayes
    He won’t answer anymore
    Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
    Nor the Marine that went to war

    Gather round me people there’s a story I would tell
    About a brave young Indian you should remember well
    From the land of the Pima Indian
    A proud and noble band
    Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

    Down the ditches for a thousand years
    The water grew Ira’s peoples’ crops
    ‘Till the white man stole the water rights
    And the sparklin’ water stopped

    Now Ira’s folks were hungry
    And their land grew crops of weeds
    When war came, Ira volunteered
    And forgot the white man’s greed

    He won’t answer anymore
    Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
    Nor the Marine that went to war

    There they battled up Iwo Jima’s hill,
    Two hundred and fifty men
    But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

    And when the fight was over
    And when Old Glory raised
    Among the men who held it high
    Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

    Oh, by the way, today is also the 231st birthday of the US Army

    Hooah

14. The girl definitely has a future career in politics, wrapping herself up in the flag like that. ;-)

15. Iwo Jima: where we had flags so nice, we raised them twice!

    John, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you get your flag? Our family has a flag that we procured through…unusual circumstances, but do most folks go to a Wal-Mart or the like and buy a nice cloth one like the one Athena’s wearing?

16. I do believe that particular flag was in fact purchased at Wal-Mart. We have another flag that was designed for a particular flag pole we had, but that pole broke and the flag wasn’t designed to work with a standard flagpole. This one does.

17. Oh bless her – the middle photo, in particular, is lovely.

18. what a disgrace. Kinda defeats the purpose of being patriotic if your going to disrespect the flag doesn’t it.

19. Hey anonomys: Kiss my ass. Thanks.