First, Meg, I have followed you forever, and what do I see when I click on this rant, but the follow button is not green… Medium has jettisoned my follow of you. That happened a while back with Stephen M. Tomic, too. This happens frequently enough that I want to rant at Medium… But I won’t. Rest assured I have re-followed! They need to start paying us five bucks a month to put up with the bugs…

On the flag — I think this is another symptom of the near total lack of civics education in schools anymore. I learned proper flag etiquette in school, and in greater detail in Boy Scouts (in the 1970s), probably abut the same time you did. Back when they actually taught that stuff. I strongly suspect that the “rule breaking” you witnessed is the result of ignorance (“You mean there are rules? I bought this flag at Walmart with my own money — how can there be RULES???”), rather than malice.

It remains a sad statement, though. Sigh.