Would You Ever Hide Your Ensign?

[Lucky Larry]

Originally Posted by sarafina

Consider yerself smacked Herr Goat ; -)

Look, great topic, interesting responses, hard to avoid any politics in regard to the topic, BUT...

Please keep any political commentary to the topic at hand, flying national ensigns, or not.

Any future posts that stray into the general international political arena will be deleted. And any responses that get cranky will also be deleted,

Thanks.

Thank you Sarafina... And I completely understand if you delete my response and the post I responded to.

I must have been writing at the same time you were smacking

I'm more than happy to not mix my cruising with my political views but there have been several political oppinions this weekend, all decidedly liberal...

And, yes, I assume this one will not stand either.



Lucky Larry

[sarafina]

Be fair, I didn't check DOJ, I asked EVERYONE to post thoughtfully.

It's a hard line to draw in threads such as these.

Benchmarks we use to try and tell where that line is are usually;

Does it relate to or add to the topic in a relevant way

and

is it causing/going to cause disruption on the boards.

I have said this many times but for those of you who have missed it; You may actually say ALMOST anything here so long as you say it politely and in a non confrontational manner.

Liberal or Conservative.

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by Lucky Larry

I must have been writing at the same time you were smacking




Lucky Larry

LOL... You boys are just lining up for the smacks this morning ; -)

[Sand crab]

Well, I never wanted to be a member of any organization that would have me as a member.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by sarafina

Consider yerself smacked Herr Goat ; -)

Noted

and FWIW, I did tone down my political views somewhat. just for CF ......in reality I am somewhat balanced - half my views are to the right of reality and other to the left of looney .

DOJ, founder member of the Tin Foil Party .

[Sand crab]

I've been told that my views are half-assed. Is that what you mean?

[avb3]

As a Canadian, I don't need to worry as much about negative repercussions as some other countries do. That being said, unless there is an indication of danger of flying the ensign, I would fly it proudly. As should most others, IMHO. You may disagree with some perspectives of your government, but that does not change the fact that you are patriotic to your country.

The two are not the same.

[bruce smith]

My flag is sewn onto the head of the gaff mizzen. Not on a halyard.
Anyway, during a nasty 2 day storm , mostly laying with only the mizzen up, we woke to find the sail holding up well , but the flag had been reduced to a pinkish purple fuzz!
Are we, ( United States of Americans) , not supposed to fly the cute flag with the anchor during time of war? anyone got a book ?
Hey look ! there it is in my avatar!

[Travelnik]

I would keep it up just as a sign of respect for the people that died for the country, no matter whether I believed in the current leadership or not. I would also fly the courtesy flag of the other country for the same reason...respect.

Maybe by letting others know what real, individual (insert your country here) are like, you may help to stop the hatred.

Possibly, we could just prove to be better ambassadors of our home (or host) country than the political bozos that are supposed to be representing the nations now. (No particular party mentioned. They all have their fair share of bozos!)

[Sand crab]

I'm a US citizen but I'm not a flag waiver, I can stand back and look at other countries and see that their way is better. I always liked New Zealand. Canada's kinda cool too. How about a kiwi bird chewing on a maple leaf for a flag.

[Jim Cate]

G'Day all,

Gee, this subject seems to elicit a lot of passion... and a certain amount of BS.

OUr years of cruising have been between the west coast of the USA and Australia. We have always flown our proper ensign... sometimes a bit tattered to be sure, but always recognizable as a Yank flag. I don't know how many "foreigners" have seen it waving off our stern, but in all of those years and miles and countries, there has been ONE anti-American outburst. This was from a drunken adolescent in New Zealand, and he was promptly quashed by his mates.

On the other hand, there have been a lot of positive responses to our nationality. We have had people in New Caledonia, Australia and particularly the Solomon Islands come up to us unbidden and say how much they appreciated what America had done for them and their country in the past.

I do not support much of what our government has done in the past decades, but seeing things through the eyes of our new friends in the Pacific Islands, the balance has been pretty damn good from their point of view.

Here in Australia we are often referred to as "Seppos". This confused me for a while, until I learned that it was a derivative of Cockney rhyming slang: Yank to Tank to Septic tank to seppo... so far it seems to have always been in a friendly vein. But other Aussies (mostly other old farts) have thanked us for our saving their asses in WW2. I don't know if this attitude is justified, but it sure sounds good to us when we hear it!

So, back to the subject -- yep, we fly the flag in all the waters we've visited so far. Like others we would likely not choose to voyage to somewhere that we were so unwelcome that flying our ensign would be a problem.

Oh... despite the assertions a few posts back, ALL the Yanks we know do fly their ensigns here in the South Pacific.

Cheers,

Jim

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by TamariskRTW

We registered our boat in Isle of Man just to avoid having to fly the Stars and Stripes on our circumnavigation. We've had many experiences in our travels (non-sailing) where people don't like the US for whatever reason, and we're tired of trying to defend the things our country does, why we have 700 military bases around the world, why we elect such stupid presidents, why we keep bombing oil producing countries, etc. etc. its just less controversial and less embarrassing with the British ensign and was worth the little bit of extra effort to register in isle of man.

Thumbs Up!