Do you love your country's flag?

I wonder what happened. usually, citizens of a country don't burn their own flag but the effigies of their politicians or people how they feel affronted with. If my info is correct,Northern Ireland is still part of the UK,right?

I was born in Peru and I feel very proud of my country's flag. I traveled to Peru for the first time in many years in August this year and I was proud to see that many people were flying the flag, as they suddenly feel very proud of their country. It was beautiful to see and feel too! I moved to Austria about 19 years ago and was surprised to see that the Austrian flag was almost identical to the Peruvian one, but their red, white, red flag is horizontal, while the Peruvian red, white, red flag is vertical. I have also lived in the Dominican Rep and Australia and those flags are red, white and blue, coincidentally.

I can honestly say that I too have never owned one or certainly bought one, I know where you can get them, Oxford Street in London, have different shops that sell touristy souvenirs, and union jacks can be found and bought there, basically anything to do with London, from postcards, pens, badges, mugs, you name it. I am not patriotic.

I respect my flag because it symbolizes my country. I would not risk my life to rescue it--after all, it's a symbol and not an actual threat or asset to the country. As a symbol it's supposed to unite people but in the past few years it has divided us as we have someone as president that has driven wedges between our people to separate us. In fact, last Independence Day I flew my country's flag upside down, a signal of distress. I love the history of our flag and the thought of it representing our men and women who have fought for my country's freedom. But in the end it's just a piece of cloth. It's the people, not the flag, that matter.

Peculiarly, in our 'training room' we have Union Jack bunting up! It was posted out to me by my Mum pre-Jubilee and we stuck it up when we celebrated a birthday recently. It's looking very sad now and the red, white and blue balloons that were clothes pegged to it have all gone down but I've not got round to taking it down. I have a Portuguese flag, bought by the kids during the football, flying above the goat shed just now. Very patriotic household, although somewhat confused

My grandmother was very patriotic and taught me to be the same. She taught me all the patriotic songs and to respect the flag. She used to put out the flag every Memorial Day and on the fourth of July. No matter what our government is doing or not doing and what else is going on in the US I think we should be proud of what the flag stands for and thankful to those who help us to continue to be able to wave it.

Respect as it symbolize not only our nation but also its history. here in our country we have a touching story of a 12 year old school girl who brave the storm last July 2011 just to save the flag of her school from being damaged.