Your Fourth of July shirt was possibly very offensive to this group 

Maybe you went all in for Fourth of July. Maybe you even wore one blue sneaker and one red sneaker with white laces in both. Hey, you were representing!

Nothing wrong with that. People should be proud of our country and on a holiday like Fourth of July one can even get choked up hearing our National Anthem or seeing the fireworks. People want to show their spirit in what they wear.

But did you know there’s one thing many people put on for the Fourth of July that a certain group may find downright offensive? It’s true.

A shirt bearing certain images of the American flag can send this particular group into a tailspin. It might not be the people you would guess.

If your mind went to progressive Democrats, no, think again. Nor is it some subversive group hellbent on bringing down our country. Not even close.

The group I’m talking about are actually some of the most patriotic among us. Traditionalists. Traditionalists who are patriotic enough to adhere strictly to the U.S. Flag Code. One such group is the National Flag Foundation which offers this advice on their website:

“American Flag coffee cups, sweatshirts and curtains are not patriotic; on the contrary, U.S. Code considers these to be disrespectful toward the Flag. The Flag should never be worn as apparel.”

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Now it’s not as bad as it sounds. When the U.S. Code says our flag should never be worn as apparel, it means an actual American flag should not be turned into a shirt itself.

60s Activist Abbie Hoffman was once accused of desecration of a flag for wearing his famous American flag shirt which some said was an actual flag cut up and sewn into a shirt while most said it was a shirt just designed to look like a flag. Either way it upset people.

Which brings up the point, some traditionalists will find it offensive if just the image of an American flag is screen printed onto a 4th of July shirt if the flag is in any way distorted. Not showing the correct number of stars is one example, or the image being cut off halfway, or there being text printed overtop the image of our flag.

There is no actual law against such things, but the traditionalist groups like the National Flag Foundation say don’t play creative games with the flag’s image. It’s fine to have it on your shirt, but don’t buy one where the image has been in any way reimagined or distorted. That, they say, is when your attempt at patriotism is bad form.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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