Is it unAmerican to say that our flag is not-so-pretty?

[Goodheart]

I mean..... There's an unattractive lack of symmetry, and I never understood the need to replicate the idea of "13" in the first place... both in the field and in the stripes.

I guess Betsy Ross did the best she could with what she had on hand, but I'm saying that somebody else at the time could have done a lot better with what she had on hand.

Anyway, the colors are nice, and I still love to see a whole lot of our flags flying in unison at assemblies and Olympics and whatever.... but I'm sure I would have that seem feeling with something a lot prettier/more handsome.

[redstateblues]

1. What is the point? It's what we have. It very distinctive.

[Goodheart]

8. The point is chat.

Isn't that the point of the site?

[Mc Mike]

2. Vonnegut badmouthed the flag's design in Breakfast of Champions.

He also called the Star Spangled Banner 'gibberish sprinkled with question marks.'

His patriotism is unquestionable, he cared about the people in America and the American Land itself. The things that are represented by the flag and the national anthem.

[sarisataka]

3. You don't get the meaning of 13?

Really?

[Goodheart]

4. Huh?

[sarisataka]

7. You said you don't understand

Why the flag had thirteen stars in the field and thirteen stripes.

I am wondering if you are truly unaware why that is?

[Goodheart]

9. That's not what I said.

[Siwsan]

5. Meh. Not my favorite flag design. THIS is my favorite flag design

The most bad assed flag on the Planet belongs to Wales.

[MontanaMama]

15. That's a GREAT looking flag!

[Goodheart]

6. France has the flag we should have had!

[MineralMan]

10. No, it's not un-American to say that. But, what is the point

of doing so?

The design of the flag has evolved, but the original thirteen bar design with a starry field is very, very old. Graphic design in the 18th Century wasn't what it is today. Flags are historical emblems. They needn't be "pretty."

Thanks for asking.

[jberryhill]

11. In Europe, they use a grading system

The Swiss got a plus:



And the Austrians got a minus:

[Goodheart]

12. LOL

[Igel]

13. If we adopted something like the Swiss flag,

the ACLU and freedom-from religion groups would immediately either sue everything and everybody all at once, overloading the courts with upwards of 230 million filings within the first 48 business hours or they'd have a mass die-off from heart attacks.

[jberryhill]

14. I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean

But a cross on a US flag would be entirely inappropriate.

Likewise the other European countries whose flags derive from medieval coats of arms which included crosses, such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the UK, Finland and Greece.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. I wouldn't say "un-American", but I don't see any problem with it as a design

Why should flags be symmetrical? Very few are. Using 13 in it seems pretty important to me, at the time; and keeping that, plus the new number of states as that increases, seems a good touch, to me.

If anything, I'd say it's the colours that are the most boring part of it - red, white and blue being a very common combination (now, at least; perhaps the USA can claim to have used those when they weren't so common, I don't know; but they are the colours of the country the USA was revolting against, which seems a little unoriginal).

[Goodheart]

17. The bigger aesthetic problem is that it's patchwork.

Pleasing graphics are congruous and understated, not overstated. The original 13 stars and 13 stripes were redundant.

If I had been George I would have said "no, Betsy, try again." LOL