My name is Mike Alexander. My family and I own and operate FlagDesk.com. In recent years, with the internet and today's new media, my sons and I discovered we were the FlagRunners. We are a social media site for the flag flyer to relate with the flag flying experience more fully. We ask others to share their flag stories because it matters and we care. I thought I'd share my story.I like to say, "We just like people who fly flags", but then I realized we are a community and people who fly flags seem to like people who fly flags too. This is why this site is for you. My flag story is maybe unique. The flag in a way saved my career and to my way of thinking, my life.
Though my Grandfather was a WWI pilot in France and my Daddy a late entry into WWII in the Navy, I never really saw a flag growing up, except at the Catholic School where I attended with my brother and sister. That is in the day when we said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in class, facing the flag.
I remember wondering, "Why do we have the song 'God Bless America'? What about other countries? How is the Pledge of Allegiance different from the Star Spangled Banner? When Francis Scott Key wrote the song was he at the battle? Did the flag really get shot through with bullet holes, like the picture on the wall? Was all of that on the Delaware River? Where is Valley Forge? Did those Marines actually put the flag up like that on the beach in Iwo Jima?..." I suppose every kid wonders about this stuff.I went on to attend college and then work in the advertising agency field. While I was excellent at new business and positioning ideas for companies to explain themselves to there public's, the lifestyle for me was destructive. As I got older I could see I did not love various aspects of the business and would really not last for a career long experience. One day, my ad agency boss asked me to write a workout plan for a failing flag company.
From the start it was an excellent fit for me. The flag had every aspect of the ad agency business that I loved and none of the downside. The flag was a three-dimensional, in motion signage element that communicated directly to the various audiences important to your concern. It very much seemed to me that our flag was misunderstood by the very manufacturers in charge of providing the flag product. The flag appeared to be treated as a symbol from the past and by special interest groups. For me the flag is always a story is about the person or people flying the flag.What is a flag flyer? It is a person like me where the flag fits with the authentic person. The flag does not belong to a special interest group. A flag flyer is someone who decides to include the flag as a part of their statement. The flag has not lost its purpose or meaning in our country since the flag's conception, it is very current and relevant today, right now!
The flag is personal, it motivates someone flying the flag to want to raise up a flagpole for any one of a thousand reasons. Then to consistently fly the flag for all to see. Some fly the flag for others, some to be the X that marks the spot for their world headquarters. The flagpole in many cases locates the cornerstone of a particular community. In that sense it joins us together; this can be very healing.
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| FlagRunner Mike running to your flagpole! |
It is a choice, it is not about the fore fathers for me, it is about now. I am flying the flag for those who can't. I believe it is the right thing to do and I can, so I am flying the flag.
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