The unusual sight of the American flag hanging upside-down from a cliff may have captivated you if you were in Yosemite National Park this past weekend (February 22, to be exact).
Being an American at this time is naturally chaotic. Change is sometimes promised by a new administration, but Donald Trump’s executive orders, inconsistent statements, and crackdowns on alleged overspending in the federal workforce have caused more than just a stir. And we haven’t even discussed the catastrophe he’s creating in foreign policy.
Consequently, a large portion of the rest of the globe is observing the US with curiosity that verges on alarm. What exactly will Trump and his group of irrational associates do next?
We can tell you what kind of message was being conveyed when someone chose to hang the US flag upside down from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, even if we don’t know the answer to that (let’s face it, nobody knows, probably not even Donald himself).
The fact that there are a conventional set of rules about the US flag may not come as a surprise to you.
You’ve probably watched videos online of people going to tremendous measures to make sure the flag never touches the ground, but there’s a little more to it than just showing the flag that you appreciate it by keeping it from getting dirty occasionally.
As per the US Flag Code: “The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.”
According to another point, “the flag should never be displayed with the union down,” which is precisely what occurred on Sunday at Yosemite. What exactly is happening, then?
According to NBC News, a group of Yosemite personnel placed the flag in that location with a specific goal in mind.
The aforementioned Flag Code rules that the US flag should never be displayed upside down, “Except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
According to reports, Yosemite employees who hung the flag upside down done so in protest of recent National Park Service job layoffs.
Employees at the agency’s national parks and forests are reportedly affected by the 1,000 job cuts made by the Trump administration. It’s possibly concerning that Trump told Elon Musk, who leads the recently established Department of Government Efficiency, to be “more aggressive” in his quest for purported cost-cutting measures.
