There is now a bill before the United States House of Representatives to establish a new, official "Honor and Remember" flag to honor people who die or have died while serving in the armed forces. See the initiative at http://www.honorandremember.org/index.html.

There, it says:

Mission: To create, establish and promote a nationally recognized flag that would fly continuously as a visible reminder to all Americans of the lives lost in defense of our national freedoms. All Military lives lost not only in action but also in service, from our nation's inception.

Rationale: In our over 200 year history there has never been an official national symbol that recognizes in gratitude and respect the ultimate sacrifice made by members of the United States military in service to our nation. The Honor and Remember Flag was created for that purpose.

There is a petition to sign to support the flag initiative. They are aiming to get as many signatories as military dead throughout history: 1.6 million. The flag would fly over military cemeteries and other appropriate sites as an official U.S. flag. Also, each living parent of a military fatality (not only battle deaths) would get a flag.


Some comments on this initiative:

- It is purely symbolic. After World War One, the first time that lots of memorials were being built shortly after an American conflict, and again after World War Two, there were discussions about the appropriate material form of remembrance. In many localities, those who didn't want a symbol in a cemetery, but wanted something useful in a more prosaic sense won out. The result was that many cities and towns got memorial halls or memorial stadiums or memorial parks and other such things instead of the statues more typical of France and Germany. This flag initiative has no "practical" aspect to it at all: There is no "buy a flag and support veteran care" or "sponser a flag and donate in a the name of a veteran to some cause" aspect. It is purely symbolic.

- As such, without any civilian purpose, it is a form of military "cult" (I use the term the way cultural anthropologists use the term, not critics of wacky religions). It is another way to re-invigor the military spirit and increase the prestige of things military, but interestingly without any real additional sacrifice being asked beyond the possible aspect of its use as a recruiting tool.

- The claim that there has never been a national symbol to honor military sacrifice may be true in a narrow sense. But it gives the impression that no honor or gratitude has been offered while we have, in fact, arguably among the most pro-military service societies in the industrialized world. The flag combines several symbols from American memorial culture, demonstrating that such symbols are indeed already well established: the folded flag presented to bereaved family at memorial services, the eternal flame (associated with the unknown soldier in other countries), and the gold star. Nevertheless, the designers insisted on adding text along the bottom, banning all ambiguity, just in case people still don't get it: "Honor and Remember."

- Throughout the webpage, the message refers to military deaths as deaths "for freedom." This transports a justification for all our wars, all our missions, and indeed service in any time or place. Much like George W. Bush's dog - the same kind of dog as Roosevelt had - some of the mythos of moral clarity will hopefully rub off onto recent history which is understood to be somewhat ambiguous.

- It reminds me a bit of the "yellow ribbon" campaigns, at least in the sense of those campaigns which the Asylum Street Spankers make fun of. Nonetheless: The initiative began with the family of one of the men killed in Iraq, so it is unfair to dismiss it as a completely hollow gesture or one meant simply to raise our country's flagging military morale. It undoubtedly has significance for some of the families. Therein lies some critique from another angle, however: What is it about our society which gives so many people the impression that the fallen aren't being honored enough? Is a flag really the answer, or do we need to consider more deeply our whole relationship to things military?