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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 4932223" data-attributes="member: 34175">I spent three years in Germany courtesy of Uncle Sam and noticed a few things during our ceremonies.  First let me explain, ALL of our ceremonies were not only multi-service (we were a Military Intelligence unit so every service worked side by side), they were all multi-national; not only German, because we were, you  know, in their country, but also Canadian, English, Australian, New Zealand and, on occasion French.  In addition I was fortunate enough to participate in the Nijmegen 4-days marches which was represented by armed forces from all over Europe, North America and one team from Hong Kong (not part of China at the time.) and even one from Poland - now THERE was a story during the cold war, let me tell you. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />What I noticed is the more warlike the culture, the more nationalistic the ceremony or observances thereof - Germany, the US, Poland, even Canada were a little more "regimented" for lack of a better word than say Holland, France or Italy.England, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong and Spain were much more.... focused.... not lackadaisical but not ultra nationalistic.    Not sure why, not claiming it as hard science, just an observation.  So maybe it has to do with how hard you pulled yourself up.  I've said several times before that the US suffers from "teenager" syndrome on the International stage because in the historical scheme of things, that's exactly what we are - 200+ years sounds like a long time until you talk to someone from England, or France, or Italy, or Greece, or China.... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Who knows, I will say as a former Soldier, it does cheese me off when people blatantly disrespect the the Flag or National Anthem, but more often than not, I think its merely a case of "ceremonial ignorance"  I still remember learning the Pledge of Allegiance in school for the first couple of years before they stopped it; they taught us how to stand, what to say, how to act, and then, they stopped.  It was after that I noticed people stopped paying attention, like I said, just ignorance not blatant disrespect.  So I usually give some grace in these cases and then try to teach them the error of their ways later.And on a related note, I sang the "Star Spangled Banner" acapella as a tryout my Freshman year to join the Madrigal Choir - in E, with the modulation on "free"... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Needless to say, I made it.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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