T HE S TARS A ND S TRIPES I N T HE Y EAR A FTER 9/11: "R ALLY 'R OUND T HE F LA G " OR "T HE F LA G I SA R AG "

In the momentous year after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, that killed thousands, destroyed the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, damaged the Pentagon, and led to the crash of a hijacked commercial airliner in Pennsylvania, we set out to document the public’s response focusing primarily on the public’s use of the U.S. flag as a visual and symbolic icon of personal feelings. We made observations in several regions of the country but primarily kept cameras and notebooks handy when going about our business in and around Ithaca, New York. This chapter reviews highlights in the flag’s history and etiquette, comments on famous and infamous historical flag photographs, and discusses our own flag photos. Most visual expressions using the flag were of “rally ‘round