Memorial Hunt- Iris

I apologize for the poor picture quality- I was trying to take a photo of the flag at half mast.
Obviously, we're looking at a commemoration of Labor Day. It struck me as odd that a flag can have so many meanings- for so many days out of the year, it stands as a symbol of country and patriotism. But every so often, it stands for something else entirely.

I immediately thought of Debord's assertion that "The origin of the spectacle lies in the world's loss of unity, and its massive expansion in the modern period demonstrates how total this loss has been..." In many ways, I absolutely agree, but to me, this flag contains a moment of unity. I could have taken this photo of any flag pole, on campus or in town, and the flags would all be at half mast. I could come back tomorrow and they will all have returned to the top of the flagpole, there to remain until it's time for another commemoration. Federal law states when the flag must be flown at half mast in federal and state buildings, but everyone with a flag pole follows suit. I've seen towns after a storm or the death of a local child, and their flags remain together, at half mast, for weeks. Either as a show of respect to our country and its heads, or out of solidarity and support to a local family, the flag can act as a unifier in an increasingly isolating world.

My second thought was simple curiosity- where did this tradition come from in the first place? A quick internet search held the answer- we started flying flags at half mast (I should be saying "half staff", as half mast implies that the flag is on a ship, but it just sounds better) at some point in the seventeenth century. The flag is lowered to make room for "the invisible flag of death". In fact, in the UK, the half mast is only one flag-width down the flagpole, to signify the flag of death directly above it. Every country in the world does this, except Saudi Arabia, whose flag contains a Muslim image that connotes oneness with God, and is therefore never lowered.

Roach talks beautifully about the paradox of collective perpetuation: "Memory is a process that depends crucially on forgetting." I would have forgotten entirely about Labor Day had I not seen the flag. I wouldn't have given the flag much thought had I not had this assignment. The flag asks us to remember something, something important enough that a federal law requires it to be lowered. But it is lowered because it knows that, without the reminder, we might well forget.