So I’m sailing for tomorrow, my dreams are a’dyin’
And my love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain.
I have my ship, and all her flags are a-flying!
She is all that I have left, and music is her name.
— Crosby, Stills & Nash, “Southern Cross”

Standards. Banners. Gonfalons. Oriflammes. Vellums. Tughs. Pennants. Banderoles. Call them what you will and, sure, throw in some bunting for the heck of it. They’re all forms of flags.

Flags have always stood at the center of man’s ideas, ideals and achievements, aspirations and defeats.