The Flagstaff Ban

I’m from Arizona and I’m not talking about the wonderful college town in the northern part of my home state. I’m talking about the color guard flagstaff.

Tyranny, again

I do not want this article to get political but this has to do with politics; the convoluted, oppressive world of politics. As you read on, please use the picture above for reference.

An organization that represents descendants of the Revolutionary War went to an annual planned ceremony on February 7, 2020, in the Old Assembly Chamber at the Virginia Capital and were denied permission to present the colors in the same fashion as has been accomplished every year at this ceremony and for decades at tens of thousands of other presentations across the United States of America.

In recent years many of my fellow Americans have become increasingly afraid of rifles and “guns” in general for no other reason than a lack of education about them. With that being said, I can then understand the overreaction regarding the muskets carried by the two guards of the team not being allowed into the chamber. However, it didn’t end there.

That overreaction extended to the flagstaffs. The men pictures above not only were were barred from carrying their two muskets but had to remove the flags from the staffs! If you would, please pause for a moment and think of the utter foolishness and even childishness that makes up this decision. The equipment a color guard uses, flagstaffs and rifles, are seen as potential weapons because they ARE weapons.

Weapons of War…

The flagstaff comes from a spear that started as early as Genghis Khan to have a colored ribbon attached to the spear tip. Different units had a different colored ribbon attached to one spear tip and everyone was then organized under their color. The ribbons gave way to small pennants and eventually to vertical banners and horizontal flags. This isn’t a complete history lesson, just a very brief overview.

Similar to the flagstaff is the firefighter’s long (8′) ceremonial pike pole that is used as a flagstaff by some departments. The fire fighting tool known as the pike pole, used to rip apart a roof and other parts of a structure for ventilation, were used decades ago to unhorse mounted soldiers.

It is quite obvious as to what the rifle represents. There are the more ceremonial rifles, M1 Garand, M14, and M1903, and the tactical rifle of today, the M16/AR14. Law enforcement agencies also use shotguns as their weapon of choice. There are replica rifles made of every sort that are unable to fire let alone accept a single round. If live rifles are ever used, they are never loaded. That is not only for safety but also because a color guard member does not engage in battle, traditionally (there are historic exceptions of necessity).

Circling back to firefighters, they use shorter pike poles as the weapon/tool for the guards and the most prominent and recognizable tool, and the one I recommend because of those characteristics is the ceremonial fire axe.

Made into Plowshares

These weapons are tools of our respective trades: military, law enforcement, and firefighters. We use them because we are familiar with them and it is a show of force, if I may use the expression. However, in many cases, including this one in Virginia, it is about honoring the flag and tradition at the same time.

There is no legitimate reason to forbid a color guard from presenting the colors in our traditional or currently written standards.

When we do not teach history, history repeats itself and honor falls by the wayside.