Culture and Society
PUBLISHED
21
Over the last month, the US flag has been spotted flying upside down outside the State Department, and now during firefall at Yosemite National Park.
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This was not a mistake, but a protest by Park Service workers at the thousands of recent firings by the Trump administration, including at least 1,000 Park Service employees and 3,000 people working at the Forest Service.
“We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties,” Gavin Carpenter, one of the protestors and a maintenance mechanic at Yosemite, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s super important we take care of them, and we’re losing people here, and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open.”
According to Carpenter, the flag was supplied by a US veteran. Flying the flag upside down is not often seen, and has traditionally only been done in dire circumstances.
"The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property," according to the United States Code.
The tradition of hanging the flag upside down to indicate distress allegedly stems from maritime tradition, as a way of showing other ships you are in trouble. A number of other options were available, with this being an absolute last resort. Tying a knot into the flag, making it a "wheft", was another flag-based method of indicating distress.
However over the last 50 years or so, flying the flag upside down has become a sign of protest. In the first well-documented instance, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that a student had the right to fly the flag upside down on his dorm room with a peace symbol also placed on top of it.
While flag-lovers may wish to say that the protest is disrespectful, the practice is protected by the US Constitution, and has been used as a protest by the left and right alike. Last year for instance, when Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records, supporters began posting images of the flag upside down to social media.
