Well Administrators… What say You???
As the Forum members trys to figure out how to pick up the clean end of this turd, your thoughts!!!
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It was not I. But that means you saw it too.
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I’m still ruminating. I’m somewhat physically diminished at the moment after surgery and I’m thinking slowly. This is a conflict between personal expression and offense over a “implied political opinions”.
Going by the letter of the law, the flag field says “Nationality”. That could be stretched to country of origin possibly. I don’t think it could stretched to, “who I favor in a complicated geopolitical standoff after a violent invasion”.
But, in an ideal world we could maybe learn to soften our focus a bit, and stop being offended at virtually everything we see. In no case do I see the flag being used as a deliberate insult, dig, taunt, derision, derogation, or flip off" It’s literally just saying “I like them”, or “I feel this way today” I’ve seen far worse flags on the back of people’s trucks in full view of children.
If we can’t achieve this tiniest element on an ideal little world here, then it will likely be elevated to an offense if someone drifts from the letter of the law. This is just my Junior moderator opinion.
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It depends of the context. Here’s the original propeller spinner cap from N-X-211, the Spirit-of-St.Louis flown by Charles Lindbergh. The symbol in the center of the cap far pre-dates that of the NSDP of Germany.
It’s a native American symbol for “Good Luck”. A little history… All the names were those who built the airplane a Ryan.
Happy Trails,
Dick
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I may have been the first J-L member to adopt the aforementioned flag for my identity line… though the idea of using yellow and blue in that fashion was certainly not original with me.
It never occurred to me that it was political or offensive but then (like most people) I probably see my actions through the lens of my intent, not other’s interpretation.
Of course I’ll abide by any decisions from the admins.
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Thenkyouveddymuch.
I think it is much closer to the Asian Indian symbol, dating back 1000s of years. I saw it on jewelry there often in shops, especially smaller independent ones. It used to be far more popular before the great appropriation into a nationalist hate symbol.
There do seem to be vaguely similar symbols from the indigenous Americans which is very interesting. It must have cross pollinated across ancient land bridges. It’s fairly different though, such that I’d never pick up the similarity if they weren’t in the same conversation.
It makes me very curious how someone at Ryan new about it. Being inside, it certainly wasn’t added afterward. Maybe someone there had been to India
I apologize if I have offended. I am certainly not anti-American. I adopted the blue and yellow more for myself because I am so heartbroken at the pictures I’ve seen. I guess I saw it as the least I could do.
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Ironic that after flying a plane adorned with a swastika, Lindbergh later became a Nazi sympathizer and pushed hard for the US to stay out of the war and allow Germany to conquer Europe. (It is noted that the swastika on the plane was opposite what the Nazi’s adopted - the arms go opposite directions).
It would have never occurred to me that a Ukrainian flag would be taken as a political statement. To me it does not express a political ideology but simply a statement of support for a country and its people undergoing a brutal assault. I view it as someone showing their humanity, not politics.
Are those wanting the flag to only be where they live, what does that mean for someone who might be British and living in the US or Germany, or any other combo? Are they allowed to pick their nationality or does it have to be where they reside? And what of people with dual citizenships? Are we really going to try and regulate this? And there is a spot in the profile for member’s location, so what is wrong with someone showing a pride or support with a little flag symbol?
Interestingly, if we are going to try and declare that a flag is a political statement, a USA flag alone has become one with the far right co-opting it to show that they are patriots and everyone else are satanically evil. Just look at pictures of a Trump rally for proof.
I must say all this makes me want to start picking a randomly different flag every few days as my own non-political statement.
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… which was my motivation, too.
Others (mis)read into it their own biases.
If you go back to post 9 you’ll get the context of why I raised this. It wasn’t the solidarity with Ukraine that concerned me as a political statement, but I couldn’t call out one behaviour (which it turned out was intended to raise this very issue) without calling out the other.
I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t started this topic. I’ve been called silly, trivial, biased and accused of bitching, probably others as well. If I were thin skinned I would have flagged them…
If we could all just be a little bit adult about this and at least acknowledge the point is valid, even if we don’t all agree. It’s within all our powers to change our flag to where we live, or not. Nothing stopping y’all…
I’ll go back to my corner now 
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I am pretty sure they see most posts , so a non-intervention at this stage probably says something, but I do not in any way pretend to know their thoughts, other than to say I recently saw the 2 admins on another forum resign in disgust, the only concrete statement was they refused to be made “woke”
I have no idea what that means, I presumed they were sick of dealing with whinging and whining, but I think it was something a little bit more than that
On the matter of flags, I prefer people have their flag, as it is useful
On the use of the Ukranian flag, I personally think it almost transcends politics, but I couldnt give a fig if admin issues a fatwah 
I check my J-l email after dealing with some real life issues, and see that my inbox is blowing up.
WTF happened, is the site down, or did someone die? Nope, instead I find this.
I guess I’m relieved the site, and everyone on it, are still alive. But people, please, please, get a grip.
This is a non-issue. Pretty much what Erica said.
Oh, and feel better, Erica. That’s important, you are important, and so is everyone else on here.
Peace, Jaguar nuts, and please let this thread die.
(And if anyone goes beyond simply displaying a flag, and starts actually mentioning politics where they do not belong, please use the Flag button below the offending post.)
EDIT: I think the original initiative to add the flags came from the late, great Andrew Waugh. And I do remember that the purely pragmatic original intent was to let people know where a poster was from, when they mention subjects that require a geographical context.
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I think the lag pin in the lapel started with the Nixon administration and the “love-it-or-leave-it” mentality. I’ve always thought it was a silly practice.
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For the record and FWIW, I think the concern is silly. I didn’t say or mean to imply that you were. I apologize if you took it that way.
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I think we can quite fairly summarise this as follows: Yes, there are rules here about using your real name, an avatar that depicts yourself and a flag that indicates where you reside. This is because this is a forum inhabited by people and we wish it to reflect the usual conventions of society.
Are these rules policed with fervour? No. None of us has the time and energy to put into chasing schoolboy antics. We trust our members to have read the simple rules and follow them. Those that disagree are welcome to leave, it makes life easier for all of us.
I trust this was clear enough.
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I just feel bad for the Krit owners.
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Buddy, if you live in the USA you have every right and reason to display your flag
The flag is a location indicator. That’s how it’s understood and meant.
Deliberately provocative or simply a small gesture of support says it all…
Do whatever you want.
That should be: I apologize if I am offended.
It is the person who is offended who should consider the reason(s) for why they are offended by such things which offend them.
This discussion reminds me of what I heard the other day on the local oldies station:
‘remember when you had a broad mind and a narrow waist … and now they are changing places’
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