By Anna Von Reitz
The only "laws" or "regulations" you commonly find about the Stars and Stripes is in the Territorial United States Federal Code where they define the proportions of the flag that THEY will be using in Title IV.
But those regulations in no way restrict the proportions of the Stars and Stripes that We, the People use.
The Stars and Stripes literally belongs to us. It is our property. It came about as one of the war flags used in the Revolutionary War --- the other flag to come out of the Revolution as a "national" level flag, was the "rebellious flag" --- so-called because of the vertical stripes--- the United States Civil Flag.
In the world of international flags generally, the horizontal "bars" indicate resistance and forbidding of trespass, much as a gate bars a road or a dam blocks a stream. Thus the flag with horizontal bars symbolizes conditions of war, where we are resisting or fighting or otherwise restricting and controlling.
The vertical columns symbolize "free flow" -- the gates are open, the columns of the government are solidly in place.
Just think of an old-fashioned dam in a river --- the floodgates can be closed, forcing the water to back up behind the dam (horizontal bars on a flag) or open, allowing the water to pass through (vertical bars).
