little background story
i live in a city with a rich Dutch heritage, and a yearly week long festival to celebrate that heritage...including 3 different parades
now, during these parades, many of the local school fly all twelve of the Dutch Provincial flags but not in the proper order
(now, im sure you guys know, there is an order in which you would have to place all 50 of the state flags, running from Delaware to Hawaii, in order of first to last to join the Union)
now, i wont bother to tell you the order of the Dutch Provincial flags is by antiquity (which one has been in use the longest) but what drives me crazy is,
1 we are talking about 12 flags, not 50, 12. its not that hard to put them in order
2 since this whole week long celebration is to show how proud we are of our Dutch heritage, how serious can we be taken if we cant even follow simple flag protocol?
this section of video shows it pretty clearly
the flag that has preeminence here belongs to the province of Friesland (blue and white diagonal stripes with 7 red lilies) this flag should be 7th in line
the flag that should be first, Noord Brabant, is the red and white checkered one...which is flown in the 6th spot
BUT...what REALLY grinds me, is the flag flown in the number 8 spot. it has three horizontal bars, red on the top and bottom, and black in the middle, with three white crosses on it.
see that flag?
that is the flag of the CITY of Amsterdam.
IF you insist on flying a city flag, it needs to be BEHIND all the provincial flags, NOT in between
(and here is one from last year, just to show im not making this up)
now, dont get me wrong guys, i love seeing the kids in the old Dutch outfits (and yes, i DO wear wooden shoes around my house) but come on, do your homework.
this is America, if there is any country that takes their flag serious, this is it.
we should at least extend the courtesy to the country were honoring