Everything at Disney World is said to have a backstory and theme.
Rides.
Resorts.
Even the shopping district.
Disney’s iconic Main Street USA is no exception.
One of the supposed details for Main Street’s backstory is that it’s always the 4th of July.
It’s meant to explain why everyone is in town for the day, and why the town is decorated
in such a patriotic fashion.
Outside of the holiday seasons, the street is adorned with red, white and blue bunting,
and the rows of buildings are topped off with American flag after American flag.
Except some people say those aren’t American flags.
You may have heard this before as it’s one of those Disney stories that seems to get
around, and it is partly true: If you look at the American flags lining the top of Main
Street USA they will all be missing a few stars.
Meanwhile the flag at the front of Main Street, as well as the one on the Main Street USA
railroad station are full complete flags.
So why the difference?
It is said to be out of respect for the US Code on how to display and care for an American flag.
The idea is that by removing those stars, the flags are no longer “official” American
flags, and so they’re not held to the same guidelines.
US Flag code dates back to 1923, when a group of 68 different national organizations in
the United States held the National Flag Conference and put together a list of guidelines on how
to display and handle the American flag.
One of those guidelines include displaying the flag from sunrise to sunset, but allowing
for properly illuminated 24 hour displays when a “patriotic effect is desired”.
Another clarifies the manner in which to fly a flag at half-staff, which involves first
raising it all the way to the top for a moment before lowering it down.
It also clarifies that when the flag is in such a condition that it is no longer a fitting
emblem for display, it should be destroyed in a “dignified way, preferably by burning.”
However back then these guidelines were just that: guidelines.
It wouldn’t be until the summer of 1942, just seven months after Pearl Harbor, that
congress would codify those guidelines into US Code Title 4 Chapter 1.
26 years later the Flag Protection Act of 1968 was passed by congress, largely in response
to protests against the Vietnam conflict, that set up federal punishments for acts considered
to desecrate the flag.
However even then it was fairly vague.
It threatened a fine and imprisonment, but there wasn’t much detail as to how much.
Over 20 years after that the Flag Protection Act of 1989 aimed to clarify those punishments,
by specifying a $1000 fine and/or one year in jail.
It was a congressional response to a supreme court ruling the year before that decided
that desecrating the flag was protected by the first amendment.
So naturally when the act was passed in 1989 it was challenged again, and once more it
was struck down by the supreme court citing a citizens’ first amendment rights.
So why go through all that history?
Well, it’s a longer way of putting it, but the general idea is that while there does
exist US code outlining how a flag should be flown and handled, there’s actually no
obligation to follow any of it.
Beyond that there’s question as to whether the alleged workaround by Disney would actually
have any impact if the Flag Protection Act of 1989 had been found to be constitutional.
Part of the act amended subsection B, which outlined what would be considered a US flag.
That amendment was packed with legalese, but it essentially included any flag that, when
seen by the average person and without deliberation, would be believed to represent the flag.
In other words, if it looked just like the US flag by the average guest, then it’s
protected by the same codes as the real deal.
But there is yet one more reason to suspect that circumventing the codes and rules aren’t
the point of Main Street’s flags: story.
While the date isn’t specifically given, the idea is that Main Street USA is an idyllic
US town at the turn of the century.
It’s usually described as the late 1800’s / early 1900’s.
In 1896 Utah was admitted to the union as our 45th state.
Oklahoma wasn’t admitted until the end of 1907, meaning that the US had 45 states during
the turn of the century.
How many stars are on all of the flags lining Main Street USA?
45.
It’s not just a coincidence either.
The star pattern on the Main Street flags follows the same 8-7 pattern that the 45-Star
flag had during that time period.
So in actuality, the flags along Main Street USA are historic US flags.
While there is nothing in the flag code that specifies how historic flags are to be treated
or handled, it’s generally accepted that they should receive the same treatment as
the current official US flags.
So with regards to the original fact that gets passed along, the flags along Main Street
would still, in theory, be held to the same standards as the “real” one at the end
of the street.
But of course that doesn’t mean Disney is breaking any rules because, again, these codes
aren’t enforced.
They’re guidelines, and there is no punishment for not following them.
So in a way that story that gets passed around and posted on blogs is kind of true and kind of not.
Those flags are, indeed, different from the main one at the end of the street and they
are, indeed, missing stars.
However, it seems less likely that it’s a clever way to circumvent flag code that
they don’t have to follow to begin with, and instead seems more like another layer
of storytelling that Disney is masterfully known for.