PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

[COPO CARTEL]

OK this is funny my son goes to preschool and over a period of time learns the pledge of allegiance. While he was out with my wife the other night out of the blue he says the pledge of allegiance as a reward she takes him to buy a battery operated train and track. Here's the funny part the box says made in China.

[SS427]

Great kid!

I used to shop Menards. Many years ago around the 4th of July I was shopping there when they were promoting the "made in Taiwan" junk. I was in the checkout ready to pay when I noticed the end cap full of flags. Being 4th of July I got that patriotic feeling again and since mine was old and tattered I decided to purchase a new one. The clerk started to ring me out when I noticed the flag's wrapper said, "made in Taiwann. I was so disgusted with the fact that I could not even purchase a US flag made in the US that I promptly left all my purchases on the counter and walked out. I did not return for over 10 years over that simple thing but it really pi$$ed me off!
Rick

[SS427]

Another wake up call was when my new neighbors moved in next door. They are from the UK. One day I noticed him flying his native flag and he walks over to ask if I minded. I stated absolutely not. He then tells me that he was really shocked. In the UK, he said that you must obtain permission to fly a flag on your house, here in America it is your right to fly the flag. He laughed and said besides me, there were no other American flags being flown on my block even though it is free to do so whereas in the UK, there are many flags flying yet those people have to obtain permission to do so. Makes you wonder. Things were very patriotic after 911 but people have become complaicent again.
Rick

[1970Bluel78]

Lots of Flags in my neighborhood here in upstate NY. I wonder how many here drive imported cars ...hhmmm....

[427TJ]

Flew my flag on the 9-11 anniversary (only one in my neighborhood to do so) and I drive a foreign car, as does my wife. Rather than ask who drives a foreign car, why not ask who has worn a military uniform.

As for American complacency, we were urged in the days after 9-11 to keep shopping. Remember the TV commercials: "America is open for business." Complacency, a form of happiness and satisfaction (and ignorance), is the normal and desired state of the population. If the Iraqi population was complacent there wouldn't be an insurgency. Kind of makes you wish they were complacent.

There I go typing again!

[Donutblue]

Local radio station WHUD here in the Hudson Valley every morning at 7:30AM has a local elementary school class on the Air giving the Pledge of Allegiance. It's really a breath of fresh air to hear the enthusisam of all the kids. Whats even better is I haven't heard any of the liberal cry babies bashing the idea.

[Kim_Howie]

www.cvsflags.com american made flags prices from 7.95 to 24.95 P.S. I have NEVER been in a wallmart!!!!!

[ORIGLS6]

Annin & Co.
Flagmakers to the world since 1847
105 Eisenhower Pkwy.
Roseland, NJ 07068

www.annin.com

[Verne_Frantz]

Thanks for posting that link Dennis I didn't even know they were there.
This is quite an impressive story

America's Flag Maker

by Warren D. Jorgensen

From a mountain on Iwo Jima to the surface of the moon, from exotic ports of call to the North and South poles, from atop Mount Everest to the rubble of the World Trade Center, Americans and the world have seen, flown and saluted U.S. flags made by Annin & Co. for nearly 160 years.
The world's largest and oldest flag company, Annin & Co. and its 500 employees produce literally miles of stripes and a multitude of stars that go into 15 million U.S. flags a year. All are made in the U.S.A.—at manufacturing plants in Verona, N.J. (pop. 13,533), South Boston, Va. (pop, 8,491), and Coshocton, Ohio (pop. 11,682).

"Patriotism demands that an American flag has to be made in America,” says Carter Beard, who with his cousin, Randy, represent the sixth generation to help run the business, based in Roseland, N.J. (pop. 5,298). "We hire the best workers, train them and give them the best machines, and from that we get the highest quality flag.”

The company's roots go back to 1820, when Alexander Annin opened a small flag-making shop on the New York City waterfront, where ships bound for the four corners of the world did so under Annin-made flags. Annin's sons, Edward and Benjamin, followed in their father's footsteps and in 1847 founded Annin & Co., moving to a large full-service factory on New York's Fifth Avenue. The company enjoyed success from the start, especially with its American flags.

Woven into American history

In many ways, the company's story is interwoven with the story of America itself.

In 1849, Annin-made American flags were flown at the inauguration of President Zachary Taylor, starting an inaugural tradition that has continued through the inauguration of President George W. Bush.

"We made the flag that draped Abraham Lincoln's coffin (in 1865), something we are especially proud of,” Beard says.

By the close of the 19th century, regard for the Annins' product had spread, and the company's flags were hoisted at foreign expositions, world's fairs and at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.

Exploration and involvement in world affairs consumed America during the 20th century, and Annin was there. The company's flags were planted as symbols of success during Commander Robert E. Peary's expedition to the North Pole in 1909, Admiral Richard E. Byrd's expedition to the South Pole in 1930 and the National Geographic expedition to Mount Everest in 1963. It was an Annin-made flag that Marines raised atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima in 1945, memorialized in a classic Associated Press photograph.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and "Buzz” Aldrin stepped out from the Lunar Module and planted an Annin-made U.S. flag on the moon's surface, where it remains today. "We were a supplier to NASA . . . We officially submitted flags to NASA for the moon missions, and ours was picked,” says Beard, who was age 4 at the time.

The world's largest American flag—104 feet by 235 feet—was made by Annin for the J.L. Hudson Co. in Detroit in 1949 and was retired in 1976 to the Smithsonian Institution. It was Annin artist Newt Heisley who designed the POW/MIA flag, which was never copyrighted because the company decided the patriotic symbol belonged to all Americans.

Perhaps the nation's most recent memory of an Annin-made flag came after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, when firemen raced to a nearby marina and grabbed a ship's American flag to raise over the rubble of the World Trade Center. The photographed moment became the iconic image of that tragic day. "Everyone here was extremely proud that it was an Annin flag,” says Beard, his voice mixed with pride and regret. "It was an emotional sight to see that flag being raised.”

[Salvatore]

[ QUOTE ]
www.cvsflags.com american made flags prices from 7.95 to 24.95 P.S. I have NEVER been in a wallmart!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ] I bet you haven't been in a WalMart! There is not even a WALMART around where you live!