[Leica] More flags as requested from the same series

Wed Jul 15 08:27:10 PDT 2026

Thank you Peter.  My talks with many people all around the eastern part of
the US has convinced me that all sides are glad to be American(there is
always the long tail so all is relative to the three center quintiles).
The flag is a means of expressing their general satisfaction with their
place; many were active in trying to bend the ark the their view of better
but it was mostly within the boundaries of the system.

All the best.

Don

On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 9:51 AM Peter Dzwig <pdzwig at summaventures.com>
wrote:

> Jayanand (and Don),
>
> I was about to reply with a version of an offline post I sent to Don,
> when I saw his reply. I'll rephrase it, but here goes!
>
> I said to Don that it always seems strange to me the extent to which
> Americans dwell on their flag as a symbol of national identity and
> contrasting that with the general attitude to flags on this side of The
> Pond. It is, as Don says, a cultural thing.
>
> IMHO the difference is that by and large in Europe flags are seen as
> symbols of nationalism, and in Europe in general nationalism and
> flag-bearing has a very nasty flavour. I don't think I need to explain why.
>
> That is not to say that Europeans aren't patriotic, they are; but often
> it can range from outright chauvinism to half-joking teasing of the
> other guy.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>
> On 13/07/2026 15:05, Don Dory via LUG wrote:
> > Jayanand, you come from a culture of immense diversity and age.  For
> > thousands of years most people lived side by side with people of very
> > different social standing, religions, and customs including invaders from
> > all directions.  Excluding the people dragged across the Atlantic to work
> > the cotton and indigo fields the vast majority of Americans chose to
> leave
> > their culture and the safety of a known situation to try something
> > different.  At first it was largely a pretty homogenous northern European
> > group that gradually included other groups that were somewhat different:
> > but the important point is that there was an overriding cultural
> imperative
> > to become "Americans" which most acculturated to.
> >
> > Starting with the "Kennedy" immigration bill in the sixties? the largely
> > homogenous social norm began to change as people from very different
> > cultures were encouraged to immigrate.  Much like the crisis in the
> 1920's
> > when millions of immigrants were pushing the labor prices down and
> > our immigration laws changed, this new immigration wave began to have an
> > effect on the population; the fringes of society began reacting in the
> > seventies/eighties and that discomfort has been increasing.
> >
> > I believe that starting with the events of 9\11 the population generally
> > started to promulgate patriotism as a way to mentally deal with the world
> > wide discomfort with American hegemony and the internal discomfort that
> > meeting all the new residents of very different customs created.  You
> have
> > to realize that most Americans lived with vast spaces between themselves.
> > A few of the coastal cities were somewhat dense in the rest of the world
> > sense but once you left the coast most lived with at most a few thousand
> > nearby people; nearby meaning their political unit typically a county.
> >
> > What is interesting to me is the level of patriotism I observed on a long
> > road trip through the eastern part of the US.  Citizens of very different
> > political views were very interested in the American project.  While
> > methods of implementation varied greatly the general view was that the
> idea
> > of America was great and that it needed to be maintained\restored by
> almost
> > any means necessary.  I was surprised  by the caution expressed by some
> > very conservative people with the use of violence; the media portrays
> this
> > group as promoting violence yet the woman on the street was very
> interested
> > in political resolution and not Von Clausewitz  resolution.  Some of
> these
> > people were ex-military and very aware of what lays down that path.
> >
> > As a parting thought, in my more than seven decades I have observed that
> in
> > the 60's through the early 2000's the patriotism I have observed was
> > reserved for July 4th and possibly Memorial Day.  Otherwise that aspect
> of
> > custom was not an issue.
> >
> > A very long winded post to try to explain the very complicated devotion
> to
> > the flag and American culture.  Also a way to start a reasonable
> discussion
> > on the LUG like we used to have.
> >
> > All the best.
> >
> > Don
> >
> > On Sun, Jul 12, 2026 at 9:59 PM Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG <
> > lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> >
> >> I find the American fixation with their flag hard to fathom. For a
> person
> >> like me, albeit from far away and of a completely different culture, it
> >> feels like a form of unhealthy nationalism, leading to jingoism and
> >> starting wars on flimsy grounds—a tendency immensely helped by
> geography.
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Jayanand
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jul 12, 2026 at 8:39 PM Don Dory via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Greetings to all.  One of our members asked for a few more flags in the
> >>> series I shot in the neighborhood.  Here are two more variations; the
> >> wind
> >>> was blowing so I didn't have very many variations:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/don_dory_gmail_com/Monday+Misc/flag+with+Live+Oak+street+in+background.jpg.html
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/don_dory_gmail_com/Monday+Misc/centered+flag.jpg.html
> >>>
> >>> All the best.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Don
> >>> don.dory at gmail.com
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Leica Users Group.
> >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >>>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Leica Users Group.
> >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Dr. Peter Dzwig
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

-- 
Don
don.dory at gmail.com