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In 1989,

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an artist by the name of Dread Scott,

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who has also graced the TED stage,

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created a piece of art in Chicago,

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where he simply placed
an American flag on the ground

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and then invited you the viewer
to go and stand on that flag

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and record how it felt in a journal.

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And to me, one of the most powerful things
written in that journal, in essence, says,

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"Why are we so OK

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with homeless people,

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with human beings laying on the ground,

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but not flags?"

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And to some of you,
this piece of art is quite disturbing.

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And that's kind of the point
of this talk --

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not to upset you or to make you mad

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but to prove to you that flags
have an incredible power,

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and that even if you think
you don't care about flags, you do.

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You know you do.

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Alright.

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By the end of it,
I hope that you're inspired

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to go out and harness this power of flags
and fight for a better world.

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But before we get there,

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we're going to start
on the opposite end of the spectrum.

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And before I show you the next stuff,
I need to say that anything I show here

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is not an endorsement,

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it's usually quite the opposite.

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But more than anything,
what I want to do is create a space here

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where we can look
at these flags, these designs,

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and examine how they make us feel.

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We're going to talk about our emotions.

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Is that OK with everybody?

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OK.

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Are you ready for your first flag?

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Cool, we'll start with an easy one.

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That was a joke. (Laughs)

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So, some of you may be a little bit uneasy
sitting in a room with this.

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I'm certainly feeling uneasy
standing in front of it.

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Some of you may be feeling
a little bit of pride.

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And that's understandable. This is Texas.
This is not a rare sight, is it?

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But let's start with the facts.

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So this is not the Confederate flag. OK?

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This is the battle flag
of the Army of Northern Virginia

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led by General Robert E. Lee.

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So next time someone tells you
that this is their heritage,

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unless their family fought
for that very specific militia,

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they're wrong, alright?

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And you have a flag expert's
permission to tell them so.

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This flag rose into prominence
during the mid-1950s and '60s

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as a response to the growing
Civil Rights Movement.

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And then of course today,

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it has come to represent
the Confederacy to most of us.

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But I shouldn't have to remind you
what the Confederacy is.

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It was a rogue nation

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that rose up against the United States,

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waged war on the US,

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and at one point in time,

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this was one of the most
un-American things you could have.

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But yet, this flag is protected

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by the same laws that protect
the United States flag

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in the states of Florida, Georgia,

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South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana.

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But let's pick on Georgia
for a second, shall we?

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So in 1956,

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a few years after desegregation
was mandated in public schools,

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Georgia changed their state flag to this.

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I think everyone watching can agree

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that this was not meant to be a flag
that every Georgian was proud to fly

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outside of their home, was it?

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No.

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Just like all of the Confederate statues
erected in the mid-1950s and '60s,

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this was meant to be a symbol
of who was in charge

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and who was not.

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This remained the flag of Georgia

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until the year 2001,

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and in that year, they changed their flag

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to this.

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Now, as a flag expert, I can tell you:
this is officially ugly.

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OK? It's OK to laugh at this flag.

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It's ugly, and because it's so ugly,

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that's one of the reasons
they changed it just two years later.

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They had a referendum

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where they got to choose
between that thing

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and then what is now
the current flag of Georgia.

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Now some of you might be wondering,

85
00:04:05,910 --> 00:04:07,199
"Wait a second, Michael --

86
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if that before wasn't
the Confederate flag,

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what was the Confederate flag?"

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Georgia flies the first flag
of the Confederate States of America

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to this day.

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They just slapped their state seal on it.

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Well, let's go back
to our emotions for a second.

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That didn't punch you in the gut
as much as the other one did, did it?

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Right?

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And that's why I love flags.

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They are the simplest pieces of design,

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usually just two or three colors,

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just some bars or stripes.

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But yet, they can invoke
the deepest emotions within us.

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They'll make us swell with pride

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or burn with hatred.

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We will die for a flag

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or even kill for one.

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One of my favorite designers,
his name is Wally Olins,

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they call him the father
of nation branding,

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and he's quoted as saying

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that "Everyone wants to belong,

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and then they want to display
symbols of belonging."

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And it's crazy that these pieces of cloth
that are just sewn together or dyed

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come to be such a sacred item,

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and that's because they become
parts of our identity.

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They are powerful tools to unify

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but equally powerful tools to divide.

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You ready for the next flag?

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Right.

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Take a moment.

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Really examine how you felt
when this hit the screen.

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I'm going to change
the slide pretty quickly

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so you don't take pictures of me
in front of this one.

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(Laughter)

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Alright?

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So Germany after World War I,

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it was in a pretty bad state,

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and a young Adolf Hitler had a lot of --
let's call them -- "ideas,"

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of how Germany got to where they'd gotten

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and how to get them out.

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He spent entire chapters
in his book "Mein Kampf,"

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which I don't recommend reading,

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about how Germany lost World War I

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partially because the British
had better graphic design

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and better propaganda.

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So, as the Nazi Party rose,

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Hitler created one of the thickest
brand guides I've ever seen.

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It's thicker than most
company brand guides today,

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and in it, he details titles and uniforms

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and lots and lots of flags.

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Hitler knew the power of flags.

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He says in "Mein Kampf,"

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"The new flag ... should prove
effective as a large poster,

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[because] in hundreds
of thousands of cases

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a really striking emblem
may be the first cause

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of awakening interest
in a movement."

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He was an artist, after all.

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He knew the power
of visual identity and uniforms

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could reignite the German identity.

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And to millions of Germans,
this was a welcome sign.

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But of course, this was also
a mark of death to others.

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We don't often think of flags as weapons,

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but like the Confederate battle flag,

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the Germans used their flag

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to make an out-group feel unwelcome

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and less than.

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You see, when you create a flag,
you immediately do two things:

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you create an in-group,

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a group that's meant
to be represented by the symbol,

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but then, inevitably,
you create an out-group.

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And usually, that's subtle.

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It's a byproduct.

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It's usually not the intent.

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But the Germans were very clear
as to who was represented by the swastika

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and who was not.

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In 1935, Jewish people were banned
from flying German flags.

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And in this way,

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the Germans, maybe more than
any other time in history,

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used the dual power of flags

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to unite but also to divide.

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Flags were used as identity weapons.

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And now, in 2019, the Nazi flag
is banned from being flown

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by anyone in Germany

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and anyone in Austria, in Hungary,
in Russia and in Ukraine.

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Think about that.

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It's a piece of cloth, but it's banned.

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On its face, that sounds crazy.

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But I don't think anyone
in this room would disagree

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that it's probably good.

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Sounds a lot like a weapon.

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As a vexillologist,

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sometimes the most interesting
thing about a flag

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is not so much its design,

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but it's those laws around the flag.

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For instance,

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in India, to create an Indian flag,

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you must use a hand-spun
cloth named "khadi."

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If you make a flag out of anything else,

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you could go to jail
for up to three years.

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It's crazy.

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Here in Texas,

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we've all heard

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that the Texas flag is the only state flag
that can fly at the same height

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as the US, flag, right?

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Because we were a nation
before we were a state.

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Who here has heard that?

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Yeah.

193
00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:10,095
Well, I'm here to tell you
that is completely false. OK?

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First of all, we were not the only state
that was a nation before joining up.

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And secondly, all state flags can fly
at the same height as the US flag

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00:09:18,848 --> 00:09:21,015
according to the US flag code.

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And I don't have to ask you
how you feel about this one, right?

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Most of us grew up pledging allegiance
to this every morning,

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knowing we should never
let it touch the ground, etc.

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00:09:31,673 --> 00:09:35,953
We take our flag code very seriously
here in the United States.

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00:09:36,978 --> 00:09:41,166
You remember, recently some NFL players
kneeling during the national anthem.

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00:09:41,190 --> 00:09:42,557
It was a big controversy.

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00:09:42,986 --> 00:09:44,899
They were breaking the flag code.

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It states during the national anthem,

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00:09:46,820 --> 00:09:49,275
stand at attention,
hand at the heart, etc.

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00:09:49,299 --> 00:09:52,088
But what was fascinating to me
as a vexillologist

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is that I didn't see
anyone getting upset

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00:09:55,469 --> 00:09:57,069
when something like this happens.

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00:09:57,597 --> 00:10:01,665
The flag code says, "The flag should never
be carried flat or horizontally,

210
00:10:01,689 --> 00:10:03,643
but always aloft and free."

211
00:10:03,667 --> 00:10:06,283
So sometimes during
the exact same national anthem,

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00:10:06,307 --> 00:10:08,201
this was being done,
and no one's upset.

213
00:10:09,071 --> 00:10:11,399
Or this. This happens all the time.

214
00:10:11,423 --> 00:10:12,588
The flag code is clear:

215
00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:17,600
"No part of the flag should ever be used
as a costume or on an athletic uniform."

216
00:10:18,299 --> 00:10:20,027
This is Texas A&M baseball,

217
00:10:20,051 --> 00:10:22,976
not to get them in trouble,
but this happens all the time,

218
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,795
especially in November.

219
00:10:25,570 --> 00:10:28,508
I'm sure, I can almost guarantee
when you leave here tonight,

220
00:10:28,532 --> 00:10:30,911
you will see on the back
of someone's car or truck

221
00:10:30,935 --> 00:10:33,353
a black and white American flag
with a blue stripe,

222
00:10:33,377 --> 00:10:34,550
a thin blue line, right?

223
00:10:34,574 --> 00:10:36,142
Blue Lives Matter.

224
00:10:37,065 --> 00:10:39,289
That breaks the flag code
in multiple ways.

225
00:10:39,313 --> 00:10:42,933
But all of these things are done
with the best intent.

226
00:10:42,957 --> 00:10:44,696
No one's here to argue that.

227
00:10:45,352 --> 00:10:47,805
But of course they break
a section of the flag code

228
00:10:47,829 --> 00:10:50,011
titled "Respect for the Flag,"

229
00:10:50,035 --> 00:10:51,759
so by putting this on your uniform,

230
00:10:51,783 --> 00:10:55,580
you are legally disrespecting the flag.

231
00:10:56,973 --> 00:10:58,335
And what I find interesting

232
00:10:58,359 --> 00:11:00,844
is that those NFL players
kneeling during the anthem

233
00:11:00,868 --> 00:11:04,142
and the people who would put
Blue Lives Matters stickers on their car

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00:11:04,166 --> 00:11:06,982
are both on the opposite end
of a very big issue,

235
00:11:07,777 --> 00:11:10,692
but they're both breaking
the exact same law,

236
00:11:11,707 --> 00:11:15,962
a law that is 100 percent unenforceable.

237
00:11:17,519 --> 00:11:21,639
In fact, it was Dread Scott's
piece of art in 1989

238
00:11:21,663 --> 00:11:25,681
that led the Supreme Court to rule
that the flag code is just a guideline.

239
00:11:25,705 --> 00:11:28,194
You cannot be prosecuted
for breaking the flag code.

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00:11:28,218 --> 00:11:30,680
You cannot be forced to be patriotic.

241
00:11:32,091 --> 00:11:37,016
So why, then, have all of these
little laws around how we use our flag

242
00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:38,724
if you can't enforce them?

243
00:11:39,966 --> 00:11:43,012
And that's because a nation

244
00:11:43,036 --> 00:11:45,166
is a fragile collective idea.

245
00:11:45,190 --> 00:11:47,880
It only exists in our minds.

246
00:11:48,798 --> 00:11:50,401
Can I see this? Thank you.

247
00:11:51,945 --> 00:11:57,741
Sometimes a flag is the only
tangible symbol of that idea.

248
00:11:58,393 --> 00:12:03,628
Right? Our unity is sometimes
only held together by literal threads.

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00:12:04,648 --> 00:12:05,973
And that's powerful.

250
00:12:06,591 --> 00:12:10,912
The flag code is meant to preserve
and protect that fragile idea,

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00:12:10,936 --> 00:12:14,056
while also protecting
your right to break it.

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00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,002
And that's what's special
about the United States, right?

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And that's what's unique about our flag.

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Our flag is amazing.

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It has changed more than
any other flag in the world.

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It's the flag code that says
when a new state is created,

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a star shall be added
to the union of the flag,

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and such addition shall take place
on the fourth day of July.

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Our flag is unique because
it is meant to grow as we grow.

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By design and by law,

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it is meant to change with us.

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It's a living symbol of our individuality,

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our diversity in the stars

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and our unity.

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We have a gift in the United States
to have a flag that is inclusive.

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If the Nazi flag was an identity weapon,

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the United States flag, by design alone,
stands in direct contrast.

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And I have to say,
as a vexillologist in 2019,

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using this flag

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as an identity weapon against anyone

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disrespects it far more
than letting it touch the ground

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or any one of the other little laws
that we break every day.

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Right?

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This flag is a symbol of our unity.

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We should never use this as a weapon
against someone else.

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I resonate so deeply with the person
who wrote in Dread Scott's journal,

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"We should never value the symbol
over the thing that it symbolizes.

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We should never value a piece of cloth
over a human life."

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And if you're ever going to use
a piece of cloth as a weapon,

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you should never use this one,

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not when it has always
had room for more stars.

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Hopefully by now, you've felt
the power of flags,

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and you can see what they can do.

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So what if we harnessed that power,

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and we used it to fight
for something greater?

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This is the flag of Earth,

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designed by Oskar Pernefeldt of Sweden.

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Just imagine with me for a second:

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What if we celebrated our humanity

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as much if not more

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than we celebrate our nationalities?

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As we become a spacefaring civilization
and we go off into the stars,

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what do our nations mean anyway

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when you're standing on the surface
of Mars or any other planet?

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And then of course, back here on Earth,

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as our planet is facing a climate crisis,

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as our climate could be unlivable in
our children or grandchildren's lifetime,

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I believe we need a strong symbol, a flag,

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to unite us to fight,

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not just as nations,

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but as a species.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)