Ep. 62: Miami Vice President w/ Amber Atteberry

We've got NAVA 1st V.P. Amber Atteberry in the studio this week! We talk about what her journey to the Vice Presidency looked like, what the position entails, and what it's like to be one of the few women in a male-heavy association. Plus, we talk shop about planning NAVA meetings, and go over the flag of a questionable "republic". Don't be a turkey, gobble this one up!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got and a few much matters. Will you might
even get to standards and what they're represent to. Just
take my voices, had a little, we'll try to understand
this logic podcast, Cular Factfook Count, Flag Food Count.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's Up, back'sh Heads And Welcome to episode sixty two
of Flagged for Content. It's the only podcast you're allowed
to listen to at Thanksgiving this year. I don't make
the rules, but I will enforce them. On that note,
Happy Thanksgiving to our American viewers and listeners. I know
it's going to be a weird one this year. Just

(00:48):
stay sane, stay safe, try to talk about something else,
you know what I mean. It is also a Flags
for Good podcast, which I mention every week. You can
head over to flags for Good dot com slash flagged
four content for like the number and pick yourself out
a few holiday gifts for yourself or for others. I

(01:09):
know I tend to get myself a few flags around
this time of year, but strictly this time of year anyway,
and you can use code Flagged four content at checkout
get yourself a nice ten percent off, and get the
show a little bit of a kickback as well. So thanks,
as always two flags for good for making this whole
show possible. I don't say that enough. Yeah, So we

(01:32):
recorded this one a while ago, Amber and I did,
and some of the information is going to be not
necessarily out of date, but it will have already happened.
For one, nav A fifty eight has happened at this point.
It was a smashing success. It was fantastic. But we
do talk about it being upcoming too. I let you
down with the weather talk since we recorded it a
while ago. That segment up top that everyone knows and

(01:55):
loves about the weather is going to be a little
bit out of date. And three, I talk a couple
times about my upcoming wedding. Well for the viewers, you
can see the ring here that has happened. And I
wanted to thank Tara Stark, Michael Green, and Curtis Tarvor,
among plenty of others, but of the vexad specific community

(02:15):
for making the trip. It was so awesome to hang
with you guys. See y'all, Tara did a thing with
her hair that I know I put up on Instagram anyway. Yeah,
it meant a lot seeing y'all there. Let me see,
oh I do apologize. There are some random like skips
in this. I tried to do this like easy editor thing,
just to save myself some time because it's been so

(02:37):
busy lately, and it cuts out like sometimes too much silence.
So I do apologize for that. I don't think it's
too egregious. It cuts out a few of my arms,
but as you'll see, not all of them. One did
you mention we are on blue Sky now so you
can go to at flagged four content for like. The
number is always dot b skuy dot So if you're

(03:01):
on Blue Sky and find us over there, I'm finally
just I'm going to troll the restore Utah's flag. People
maybe still on Twitter, so I may keep that up,
but other than that, I am pretty much moving over
to Blue Sky. So if you followed us on Twitter,
go follow us there. I did want to mention merch
as well again stocking stuffer holiday ideas. We have a

(03:24):
red Bubble store. The link for that is on our
link tree linktree dot com. Slash flagged for content all
spelled out and yeah, pick yourself up or someone you
love some cool flag for content here. Let me see,
I'm going long on this because I haven't talked to
y'all in a minute, and I do apologize for that.

(03:44):
I think that was most of it. Other than another
link on our link tree is the Patreon, which I've
got some very cool new ideas for. I did an
episode recently with Christoph Hook that I didn't mean to
make live to everyone. It was supposed to stay within
the Patriot, but I made it live on YouTube due
to some technical thing. Don't worry about it. And it

(04:05):
was a lot of fun to have like multiple people
in there in the chat at the same time, like
asking questions, making comments, all that stuff. So I think
that's something I'm gonna do moving forward. I'm not sure
what the split will be between being on Patreon and not,
but if you want to just go ahead and get
all of that stuff as soon as it comes out
and participate in the live stuff, head on over to

(04:27):
patreon dot com slash flag for contents felt out. I
think that's pretty much it. I don't need to tell
you how much fun this episode with Amber was, because
you will hear that pretty much right out the gate,
but it was a blast. Amber was so fun to
talk to. She is a huge help at every NAVA
meeting coordinating like they would not work without her. So yeah,

(04:50):
huge shout out to Amber. One last shout out since
I just realized it's in my background the NAVA what
fifty nine flag is right here that will be held
in Seattle in late summer early fall of next year
as well, and a deep Altalal sent me a few
of these. I think like two or three of these,
So what I'm gonna do is a kind of giveaway

(05:13):
for one. I'm not sure what form that's gonna take yet,
but it should be very exciting. You cannot get these anywhere,
so if you want one, stay tuned into the show
and especially social media to see kind of what form
that takes. I'm thinking I may do it as the
next season of Fresh Flags first place Trophy. Anyway, that
is all a lot to get through. I will not

(05:35):
waste any more of your time, So please enjoy episode
sixty two of Flag for content, and please enjoy your
Thanksgiving folks. We have a true luminary of the vexillology
world here this week. You know her as a Victorian
era reenactor, you know her as a ghost hunting facilitator,

(05:59):
and you know her as the first Vice President of
a little thing called NAVA is Amber Adabury.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh hell, Andy, thanks for having me. This is a
This is a true honor.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
This is the honor is all mine. Amber, Thanks for
coming on the show.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh my gosh, don't give me that much pressure.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Oh it is uh, you know, it's the pressure that
I give to everybody. It's uh, you know, you gotta perform.
I brought you on and now it's all you ooh
oh boy, No, I would never do that to you.
We uh, you know, we wrote up a doc and everything.
It'll be fairly easy.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, thanks for having me. I love it.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, no, honestly, like yeah, for the folks, you know,
kind of like a behind the scenes thing. Uh. Amber
and I do talk about every two weeks. Given that
we mostly Amber has been planning the upcoming NAVA fifty
eight meeting, but I am on the calls those like
Zoom meetings as well doing some of the tech side stuff.

(07:04):
So this is not the first time we've talked, and
it won't be the last time we talked. I think
we have another one this coming Sunday, this Sunday. As
of recording time, I don't actually now that I think
about it, this may come out after nap of fifty eight,
but in any case, whatever, just know that we've talked

(07:25):
listener viewer. So, yeah, Amber, so you are down in Florida.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
I am Saint Augustine, Florida, about forty miles south of Jacksonville.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Gotcha, And all our listeners are dying to know. They
don't tune in so much for the flags as for
the weather. So like, what's the weather going on like
down in Saint Augustine.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Oh boy, it's uh boiling.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, yeah, it's pretty warm.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
You can definitely kind of sense that climate change should
start to group down. But we are probably in for
a pretty intense hurricane season, so we've got to keep
an eye on that. But I'm pretty sure I'm a
lizard person. I was born for the heat. I get.
I'm a Floridian in the environmental sense, not the political sense,

(08:16):
so I definitely need I need a hoodie at seventy degrees.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
So right, okay, I gotcha. Yeah, it's uh, I'm a
Tennessee in but that is you know, I always think
it's hot here and then I look at other Yeah,
I look at Florida and I'm like, nope, nope, not
doing that. I do not know how people retire to there,
because like I can't do the heat at thirty six,

(08:41):
I don't know how people do it at double plus that.
But whatever, anyway, that's you know what. We're going to
wrap up the weather segment early because we've got one
because it's a total fucking joke. And two well, all right,
First off, now I can mark this explicit. And two
because we have so much to get into today that

(09:03):
we just do not have the time. I'm going to
give the ves heads a rundown of what's on the
flagpole today, and it's a lot. We have our typical
over and underrated flags. We will get some insight into
NAVA leadership and what it's like to be on the
navaboard in this case specifically the first VP. As I mentioned,

(09:25):
we will get into the nitty gritty of being one
of the few women in NAVA, possibly get into some
Florida flag stuff if we have the time, and get
into a republic that may or may not exist, so
definitely tune in for that. But first amber, before we
do get into any of that, I like to ask

(09:46):
my guests what is the flag that got you into flags?
And how did that come about?

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Oh boy, Now I do love this story. I get
true react. There's exactly two camps of reaction to this story,
some who it is great and funny, and some who
were just absolutely baffled. So I do love this story.
It was actually in twenty seventeen. Well, I'll practice this
by saying, growing up in Saint Augustine, I've been starting

(10:14):
to be flags my whole life. There are five flags
over Saint Augustine. We have been bounced from the Spanish
to the British. Fact it's Spanish, we're French, now we're American.
So there's just every flag all over the place, hanging everywhere,
just all part of our history and it's beautiful. So
you could say that got me into flags. My friend

(10:34):
Vern got me into NABA. My first NABA meeting was
in twenty fifteen. I couldn't go in twenty sixteen, but
I knew as a true vexillologist in twenty seventeen. And
I learned this in a mashche.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Right, a typical story.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Go on, Yeah, absolutely, just a Naba's roots are in Moshpitz, Right,
I was in I believe it was in Brooklyn. Maybe
I was maybe I think it was Brooklin. Actually I
was at a Ministry concert. They're industrial metal. If you're
familiar with Ministry or the lead guy, Al Jurgensen, he
is very politically vocal. So Vernon and I were in

(11:16):
the mosh pit doing moshpit things and basically just needed
ot parties and such.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
So in the mosh pit there are two girls. These
two girls come out on stage carrying flags on flag poles.
They're marching behind the band and the props and these
all these decorations on stage, and there's a lot of
blue light, there's a lot of smoke, and they're carrying
these flags back and forth. You couldn't quite see the

(11:46):
colors because of everything going on.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, I'm sure, yeah, yeah, the blue.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Lights is washing everything out. There's right smoke machines. There's
giant inflatable like ducks on stage with political imagery on them. Yeah,
if you look up a Ministry show you'll see what
I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Sure, so Vernon and I like look.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
At each other. We don't say anything. We leave the
mash pits, go to the very edge, you know, and
we'd pull out our phones and start googling what that
flag is, and I'm like, did I just leave a
mosh pit? I had to look up a flag. I
don't know where my shoes are. I might have a
black eye, all right, right, But and that's when I

(12:31):
realized it's like, oh my gosh, I am a vexologist.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, in a mosh pit. Yeah, because I just let yeah,
I left my shoes possibly probably, Oh I didn't intentionally
lay my shoes. They just leave you. Well, yeah, no,
that's true. I was in a mosh pit, you know,
what happened. Happened. And then now I'm over here, not
in it, checking out flags. And I did that by choice.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
I did that by choice. And we're like yelling over
the music and the crowd to everyone. Also, I think
it's up. It wasn't an anarchist flag, which really goes
in line with with the band and what they're for.
Uh So it was the red and black, you know,
like that kind of thing, but there's a lot of
blue light. You can't tell. It looks kind of purple

(13:17):
and darker purple. But right, that's why we're confused. So
we're like shouting over the mastra like okay, flag, what
okay flag? You know this is comedy, comedy goal. No,
that's yeah, that's amazing, like because I mean especially being

(13:40):
from Florida and you're in Brooklyn seeing this band and
you're like in a mosh bed. You're like in your field,
like you're you're all up in it. You see my
flag and you're like all right, all right, all right,
yeah yeah, hold up, pulled up, pulled up shoes, like
fucking whatever. Yeah, over here, I gotta figure out that
look like a two tone flag and like it doesn't

(14:02):
even look like you know, it's two colors, but I
figure out what those two colors are and what.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
This is is that like yeah yeah, like and then.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
They were like analyzing the whole thing. These girls in
bikinis are waving, We're all over the place. Sure, and
now it's out of the entire show. That's what we
zeroed in on.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
The girls and bikinis are the yeah, I know, the flags,
yes and yes, yes and yes yeah yeah, full stop.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Full stop. And there's like a lot of movement and
smoke machines. Now was like windmilling is dreadlocks all over
the place. It's hard to see that, especially a lot
of movement in the mosh pit too, Like yeah, just
being slammed all over the place, and and I'm five
foot three, like everybody is twice my size at least,

(14:49):
so it was.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
It was right, Yeah, I did not appreciate that part,
being six foot even, I usually can't usually can see,
you know, what's going on and keep my wits about me.
It's been a it's been a minute, admittedly, but yeah, no,
that's that's definitely dedication. And as you said, that's when
you know you're a vex head is when like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Like this is this is the important part of the show.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
This was more important to me, like, uh, yeah, I
gotta know what those flags are, all.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Right, exactly, I've not. I don't know if you've ever
tried to politely leave a mosh hit.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Uh no, I would never, no.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
No, like politely leaving the mastrait, Like I gotta I
gotta know what this flag is.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
You know why I've want my way out of a couple.
I don't think I've ever tried even tried to politely
leave one.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
But yeah, it was it was an adventure.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
I am gonna have to look up ministry and uh
why you were there with Ernest goes to camp sidekick
Verne uh, I did not know he was into that scene.
But it's honestly, it's making a lot of sense now.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
That was It was a great show by the way,
Death Thrips.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Opened, So yeah, hey for the fans.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Oh, absolutely amorable.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Show right on. So okay, Well, as I mentioned, uh
before we started recording, do you uh we got underrated
and overrated? It is up to you which one we
go into first. Here I usually say it's more important
which one we end on, but you know, marginally, So
go ahead with with your bad self.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
All right, I'm just gonna put a disclaimer out there.
I know I'm gonna get a whole lot of hate
for both of these choices.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Oh, I know where you're going, then, I know where
you're going. Yeah, all right, Well I'm gonna start with overrated.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Actually, so I I will say that I do. I
just had to say this is gonna this could be
a hit on my app. Sure I'm gonna be kicked
out an abba uh so overrated. Now, I will just
claim that I do love the design. It is just

(17:07):
a bizarre design and I generally love it, but I
do describe it as overrated just because of how oversaturated
and it is Maryland. What I think there's anybody out
my window right now?

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Right, Yeah, there's a little red dot that appears like
on the side of Yeah. No, it's like.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
It's the most controversial thing I've ever said.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
I mean, yeah, I know you remember you remember who
won the award last.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Year and that goes on, right. I Oh, it's true.
I do, like that's what I'm saying. I do love
the Maritaline flag, but I do say it's overrated just
because of over how oversaturated it is. You see it everywhere,
even more than the Chicago flag. It's uh yeah, I

(17:57):
can't even say why I feel if it's overrated. I
think it's just maybe it's just everywhere and I can't
handle too much repetition. I don't know. And it is
like a beautiful mess. I will say it breaks every
rule in the world.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
But I think I think I think a key word
that you said there kind of like offhand, was like repetition,
because like the flag in itself has so much repetition
that when I see the flag repeated, I'm like, that's
just repetition on repetition. Yeah, it's it's too much for me.

(18:34):
It's too like I don't know, what's the word like garish.
Garish is probably a word I would.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Say, Yeah, that's that's a good I would say a
good word for it's a Maryland flag. And I say
that with much love I do with respect to the
Maryland flag. But I'm sorry, get out of my house
for me.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, no, I I agree. I will give it this.
I I love how much Marylanders love it.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
I will. That's exactly it.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, I will never shit on somebody for loving their
flag and promoting it and putting it and as in
as many places as they can. Like that is That's
basically what we're all about, not just as an association,
but like this show, like you and I as people,

(19:26):
you know, like that's what we're all about. This particular
flag is not for me, but I respect your passion
for it.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
And that's exactly it. I respect the passion for it.
You know, if you want to wrap your truck into
Maryland flag, don't park it up my house. And I
feel that it's also a little hypocritical of me to
say being from Florida, because Florida's put their flag absolutely everywhere,
say I at least here. Okay, I have a little

(20:00):
joke with my friends that you know are Floridian if
they either have fish tattoo, a tattoo of a flag,
or a tattoo of the state somewhere on their body.
And I've seen a lot of Florida flag tattoos, and
the flag is everywhere here, but I don't I don't
know if it's as plastered everywhere outside of Florida, Like
you're gonna see the Maryland flag outside of Maryland. You

(20:23):
can be an Antarctica and you're gonna see it there.
Oh yeah, there will find you.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah yeah. Tera Stark, who's been on the show a
couple of times, like and and who you know from
from Nava, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. She talks
about how the Maryland flag is like an invasive species
basically in in uh, in Philadelphia or in like you know,
parts of parts of Pennsylvania part like basically the greater

(20:48):
area outside of Maryland there. And I think, honestly, that's
a perfect term for it, because Marylanders do tend to
take that everywhere them. I think, like almost on a
part with I talked about it in a recent episode.
I don't know what order these are going to come out,
and to be fully honest. But on a recent episode,

(21:10):
I talked about the Texas flag in a very similar
way as Texans they love their flag, they move out
of state, and then they spread that everywhere. I think
Maryland is very much the same in that respect.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Absolutely invasive species is a perfect description. Yeah, yeah, Tera,
you were a genius. Oh and I know a lot
about invasive species and I didn't really think of Marylanders
as one of them, but I will now thank you.
And that's just coming from someone whose mother is from Maryland.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Ooh, ties, maybe that's.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Also part of my about the Maryland flag, you know,
just right, you know, maybe it's just something about Maryland.
Or she's like, hey, did you know them from Maryland.
I'm like, you've told me every day for forty years, mother, Yes,
I do, right right. So Marylanders love their flag and
I got to respect it.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
I mean you do, especially as a Tennessee and again,
we have a good flag. I like to put it everywhere.
I like the TriStar design. Tennessee is actively putting it
in more places, like every bridge we build, it's like
stamped into and painted on, like the overpass. Like we
are putting it in more and more places because We're

(22:24):
so proud of it. It's on like all the I
voted stickers, everything like that. I got, you know, plenty
of magnets, et cetera of it. So yeah, like, I
get it. And I also swore that I would never
own a Maryland flag. And then I got engaged and
I'm gonna get married soon. And so Evan Stewart, who

(22:48):
is a fan of the show and past guest, sent me.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
It's coming from inside the house.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I know, and he said, like he made a
worse pun than I would have made, and I've called
him out for that. So I said, like, oh, I
assume you sent it to me with some pun about
like Maryland getting married. And he was like, fuck, if
I had thought of that, I wouldn't. And I was like,
all right, well then I don't accept the flag and
I'll never fly it. I still then ironed it. If
you notice I still an ironed it. It's one of

(23:17):
the very few that I have not.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I mean, could you tell though, if it was a.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Right anyway?

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Oh my goodness. So yeah, that that's my uh, that's
my spicy take. Yeah, overrated flag. I apologize, but it's
a sorry but not sorry situation.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, no, that's and that's probably good on the overrated
if you want to, uh, go ahead and move into
the underrated, because this is also another like spicy, I
don't know spicy is the word. This is another Uh,
this is another very good take and one that I've not.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Heard, right, I uh no, here's another disclaimer. Uh, I
don't even want to call it underrated. It is one
of the lowest rated flags, and it deserves to be.
Design wise, it's terrible. But I can't help but have
a soft spot for the Provo flag. There's just right there. Yeah,

(24:12):
there's just something about it. It just I think there's
just so much, there's so much going on, and I
just can't help but feel sorry for it, and I
love it for that way. It's weirdly hopeful, just going
up and the rainbow, and I don't know how many
other flags you can look at and be like that

(24:32):
that was designed between eighty two and ninety five. Somewhere
there had like it's like you can hindpoint it. It
just kind of reminds me of like they're reading rainbow segments,
you know, they always had like rainbows like shooting up
trying to be hopeful. You know, it's like it's doing
its best yep, and it's very proud and I I

(24:55):
was a little sad when they changed the flag. Part
of me wanted them to keep it in the of pressure,
you know, but I I understand things change, but I
do have a weird soft spot for the proper flag.
It absolutely deserves the low rating it got design wise,
but you know, it just kind of loves the little guy.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
I mean, yeah, me too. It's uh, it's yeah, it's
like the scrappy underdog or you know, one of one
of the scrappy underdogs of flags. And I'm yeah, I'm
like you, I'm a little upset they changed it. Is
the new one better? Yeah, objectively obviously, like it's hard
to get worse, but like, I don't know, this seems
like a flag you should be you know, you should

(25:38):
just dig your heels in the ground and be proud
of if another fucking reason, then.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Shitty flag.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, I love this shitty flag. Like it's uh, does
it look like the Centrum logo? Absolutely? Oh yeah. Can
you tell exactly which version of like, you know, the
Microsoft suite that you designed on?

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yes, Like I can hear startup noises every time I
see it right right, I hear fat machine noises. Oh yeah,
it's like a wave of nostalgia. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Like and for people of generally our age, that's like visceral.
You're like, oh, I see the probo flag, and I yeah,
it takes me back to like I don't want to
play like kid Picks and like do all this other
like I don't know, like, yeah, it definitely back to
an era.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
It makes me wonder what time Power Rangers is on,
you know, yeah, Like it's just that you're right, it's
just like a snapshot of a time period. It's a
lot of weird nostalgia with the pro flag, and it's
going upward like we all are trying, you know, we're
all doing our best here, pro Bo.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
It's the flag is the ultimate metaphor. Is it's doing
its best.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
It's doing its best. It's like it's been a little
rain bow under here, yea at some point. Yeah, yeah,
so I do. It's an objectively bad flag, but I
I can't help but love the old promo flag. It
goes an end of an error.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
When they changed it, I agree, And you know what,
I honestly do not remember what they changed it too.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
I can't either. And now that's kind of a.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
It's I think that speaks to you exactly. Yeah, sorry
I cut you off, but to the point, right.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
Right, No, it's like when you think of promo flag,
you don't think of the new one. You think of
the Centrum logo.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, the new one is said, the new one's kind
of soulless. It's fine.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, it's an objective. Yeah, let me look about myself,
because I can't remember. It is objectively a good flag
by it's nice formula.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
It's got land, water and sky, which, as we point
out on this show all the time, most places tend
to have.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
I I would have loved if they like put profo
like shooting up out of the mountain and rainbow just
like a little yeah, I just get a call back
in a little callback to their roots. I just want
to I almost want to start a my goofundme to
like switch back to the old provo flag.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
I mean kind of right, and like I mean, as
I mentioned, I wouldn't own this flag if I didn't
like it so much. And Flags for Good is where
I got this, And they wouldn't sell it if it
wasn't selling, Like it's you know flags were good. Their
motto is like, we only sell good flags. They might

(28:37):
want to amend that too, we only sell good flags.
And also the Provo flag what but like, I mean,
people are buying it. I bought it. I think I
prayed for this one. And full disclosure, Michael does send
me some flags that, uh just I.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Might actually have to purchase this flag just because I
just makes me so much joy, weird joy that I
can't playing.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
It's just nostalgia, right right, Yes, I would not blame
you an Amber when you do use code flagged for
content for like the number okay at checkout. So I
had to get that in there because I think I'm
legally Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
I'm gonna write that down because I will not remember.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oh, it'll be in the show notes and the video.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
But in the meantime, yeah, because we don't know when
this is coming out. But yeah, no, honestly, uh, that
is like the fourth link on here is the flags
for Good link for where they sell it. So perfect. Yeah,
it's uh, it's it's perfect. I am definitely pro vo

(29:46):
pro vo. Yeah, yeah, I love it. I think the
new flag is anti VOE and I don't really care
for it. I think this is bizarro provo. Yeah, on
that absolute anger of a joke. I think it's time.
I mean, it's probably time for us to head into
our first break here. But do stick around. We are

(30:08):
getting into the bulk of the episode after this, where
we are talking about what it's like planning these NAVA meetings,
what it's like being the first VP, what it's like
being Amber Adaberry, and oh god, yeah, well you know
the NAVA aspects of that. Anyway, Okay, we won't go
into all the ghost times and I'll say, yeah, but

(30:30):
do stick around. We'll go into most of that when
we get back. Okay, and we are back more with
nava's first vice President, Amber Adaberry. But she wasn't always

(30:55):
the first vice president Amber. I'm curious to know. I'm
sure the listeners are as well, when you got into
NAVA and kind of like how you moved up through
the ranks to get into that position. So let's, as
I always say, start with the start here, start with

(31:16):
the start. It's just my thing.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yeah, I love it, so, yeah, I would. My first
NAVA meeting I attended was in twenty fifteen. That was
in Ottawa, with my friend Verne. He's the one that
got me into Bexology and Flags in the first place,
and funnily enough, ministry.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
So he's so.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
I missed twenty sixteen because I was trying not to
die in a hurricane. I had some priorities there and
it was Hurricane Matthew All allow it, yeah, good, good,
good good. I would say things amped up in twenty seventeen.
That was the Boston meeting and I met a lot
more people, But I would say in twenty eighteen, maybe

(32:00):
even twenty seventeen. I would say twenty eighteen is when
I first started helping out with conferences in a small way,
helping on being on the planning committees and doing things
like that, right okay, And after a little while doing that,
I was approached for a position called first Quainted Officer.

(32:23):
Basically it was a new board role. I don't think
anyone occupies it now, but it's basically a junior board role.
You don't it's not a voting position or anything of
the sort. But I guess it could be described as
like training wheels. I guess, like you see kind of

(32:43):
how it works, how leadership works, how running things work,
and kind of see behind the scenes period. And then
I was approached asked if I wanted to run for
first vice president, and I've always had this, uh fuck it,
why not have a mindset with the things like shit,

(33:04):
all right, let's see where this goes. I'm like, sure,
why not? I I mean it's it's if you think
I can do this, I mean you don't want to
be guys.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, you don't get to be a Victorian era reenactor
and a ghost hunting facilitator without that exact attitude, I
don't think. So. Yeah, it does this.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Uh, It's got me in some interesting scenarios and unique
situations and this is this is no different. But my
thought was like, if y'all think that I'm good for
a leadership role, it's on you if I drive everything
into an iceberg. So sure, but thankfully I think I've

(33:47):
succeeded so far. I haven't heard anything through the contrary.
But yeah, that just basically basically the story. Attended meeting.
Showed interest in volunteering and helping out because I guess
that's just what I do. I'm a naturally oddly enough
organized person. I live my life in spreadsheets and bullet

(34:07):
journals and Google calendars and things like that, so it
just is a natural bit.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, no, that that makes total sense. So yeah, I
mean that's a pretty short span of time as well
to kind of move up through the ranks.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
It does, it isn't, it isn't. At the same time,
to me, it seems like a very short amount of time.
But also when my first meeting was in twenty fifteen
to attend, it's wow, you know, it's Schrodinger's flag situation. Yeah,
very short time, very long amount of time. At the

(34:45):
same time, it feels.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, I guess I you know, I have trouble remembering
what year it is, so you know, fifteen to twenty
twenty four. Yeah, I guess that is longer than I
would like to think it is. But I also forget
the year, hence the spreadsheets and bullet journals. Sure right now,
that absolutely helps. That definitely helps. So yeah, I'm I'm

(35:08):
sure a lot of the listeners and I myself, even
even from being in meetings with you and having sat
at the same table with you for pretty much all
of NAVA fifty seven and everything doing like the tech
side of stuff and all that, I am still curious, like,
what are the the duties that fall to the first

(35:30):
vice president, like like what do you do in the organization.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Of course, a lot of it is the conferences, helping
organize conferences, keeping everything together right now, that I would say,
that's the biggest chunk of it, And of course that's
what I don't want to say, that's what NAV is
all about. But that is a huge driver. Are the
annual conferences. So I would I would say most that

(36:00):
right now, and of course at the president for board
meetings can't be there. I drive board meetings, which sounds
a lot fancier than it is for me. It's just
basically going down the agenda that I was already given
and saying, okay, we're doing this now. Okay, we're doing
this now.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah. Sure.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
So that's basically it. Communications with people helping out members
where I can you know, you know, some I don't
want to say that, some people find me more approachable.
I don't know if that's the case at all, but
I am approached a lot with questions and things like that, conferences,
things like that. I think just maybe because I am

(36:41):
the I am one of the ones on the ground.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I mean, I think that's fair. I'm for just like
a to use your word on the ground. Example, I
think we've probably cussed twenty times in this episode, and
I don't think I did at all in Ted Cae.
So as far as approachability, you know, you're fucking nailing
it on that. That's twenty one.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I don't know if Ted k curses.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
I don't know if the man does. And that's not
a knock that you know, that's no, No.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
That's more admiration. I can't get through my morning routine.
I can't even make it past my first fucking cop
of coffee without dropping at least through or fourth bombs.
It's admiration for the man that I've not heard him swear.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, I got it.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
I got my coworker, who is a hard for Baptist churchgoer,
to say I give a shit and that, and you
know how much work that took me, and I still
have yet to hear Ted curse, So that I have
nothing but admiration for the man.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Right right, This is I I do also want to
be clear that is not an Ted is fucking fantastic.
I'll put it that way. I admire, yeah, regardless of
work with him exactly. Yeah, it's an honor to speak
with him, to have his number, to work with him,
talk with him, like all that shit, Like, Uh.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Absolutely, I was not meant to be Ted. If you
listen to this, I am dying to not go a
day without fucking cursing like you. Yeah, I don't know
that is something to aspire to for me.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
I don't know if Ted will listen to this, but
I know Steve Wheatley will. Who is the second VP,
which actually kind of leads me into a question that
we didn't necessarily discuss. But I am a little bit
curious what duties like, Uh, what's different between a first
VP and a second VP, because not every organization or

(38:39):
association has that distinction. Uh does it work? Even?

Speaker 3 (38:46):
I think that by this point Steve would take over
my duties when I'm inevitably assassinated for my comments on
the Maryland flag pus.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Right, right, So I'm going to have a backup kind of.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
It's good to have a backup contingency.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
Exactly, contingency plan. But we all work very closely together.
It is a great team, and there's no ye like
in board meetings and committee meetings and any of these things.
Just it's never like a hierarchy.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
You know, we all that way, right, And I honestly
appreciate that about NAVA and about being like in those meetings,
in the planning meetings for fifty eight, and hopefully I'll
be asked to be in the ones for fifty nine
as well. But you have a choice, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Right now, No, this is how I ended up. It's
like I volunteered once and it's like I'm you know,
it's like you're hanging on to your right right, one
of us, one of us schoople people.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
This is literally that gift like yeah, exactly, yeah, from whatever,
the Isle of doctru or whatever.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
That was a freaks I believe nineteen Oh that is free.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. Yeah, yeah, and
that will be probably on the screen for the viewers. No,
I don't know if I can clear that, so probably
not because copyrights. But anyway, it's in the public domain now.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
But yeah, it's a memes. I don't know how worries
I think it'd be fair use maybe I'll.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Check on it. Yeah, for anyone watching, it's probably played
like five times by now and we're still talking about it.
But no, but I two your point, like, yeah, amen,
Like I have never felt like and I'm not an
an officer, I'm not on the board. I am the

(40:38):
guy who does the tech stuff for UH for the
NAVA conventions at least for the last, for the for
fifty seven, and for the upcoming fifty A one, which
may have already happened by the time this comes out.
But yeah, and it's been nothing short of like an
honor and very pleasant to be in those meetings because,

(40:59):
like you said, they're does not seem to be a
hierarchy when you're all in the meetings, like obviously there's
somebody that kind of moderates it, like usually Ted if
he's there, or yourself or like who are you know,
Whoever's kind of there are different people that kind of
like guide the discussion. But it is just that it's
a discussion of like all right, various points, like all right,

(41:20):
how do we how are we looking on this? How
are we looking on that. It's never felt like anything
less than like a very very open committee where even I,
as a little you know, person who's not on the board,
feel very welcome. So you know, I will I will
gladly and openly say that and that's to not just

(41:41):
your but everyone's credit, I think on the board, which's great, right,
and that's the that's just that, that's just that.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Now it's a it's a very open even the board meetings. Anyone,
any nab A member can sit it on the board
meetings and are uh right are There's a spot at
the end of each horn meeting where NAVA members can
give their feedback, so that I feel like that kind
of is an example of how these board meetings go

(42:10):
and what it's like being on the board. It's like
there's no like, oh it's the president, you know, it's like,
oh hey, Stan, what's up? You know, like what's going on?
You know, It's it's all very even, and I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, yeah, come, yeah, open invitation. Come and try and
get Ted to curse.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
You know, yeah ten points at ten points, twenty points
if you can get Ted to drop the f.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Fall oh man, I'm given fifty for that. But yeah
or right right, oh my god, yeah no, like and
that's exactly the point that I was definitely and totally
intentionally leading you to. But yeah, no, those NAVA meetings,
not just the board meetings, but like the ones they

(42:56):
have for like redesigns. The ones they have like listed
on the website, are open into any NAVA members and
they are awesome resources.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
If you're a NAVA member, you're more than welcome to
listen on the board meetings. Yeah, to hop on, and
we do get people who do hop on. We have
regulars and oddly enough and once in a while you
know new faces, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Especially if you're a local to the area where the
conference is going to be held, Like obviously the Saint
Paul ones are kind of wrapping up as we get
closer to it, but Seattle is the next one. And
if you're a Seattle local, like, yeah, I mean once
those meetings start, yeah, definitely feel free to hop in
on those give recommendations, especially myself as the runner of

(43:44):
like the game Night stuff and the Vexy Bits, which
are basically two of the more casual The game night
thing is even optional. Well yeah, I guess both are
technically optional, but like I am always looking for recommendations
of where to host the game night you know, what

(44:08):
a good crowd would be, stuff like that. So yeah, yeah,
feel free members to hop into that stuff anytime.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Absolutely, Seattle people, if you want in on the planning,
please email me. I will drag you in.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I kind of wanted to touch on
something that we got into on the flagpole segment up top,
and this is an interesting topic that we have not
touched on because we haven't really had the chance to yet.
But to be totally open Frank et cetera about it,

(44:47):
you are the only woman on the navaboard and one
of a I mean, women are in the minority in
Nava in general. And I've had a few listener, viewer,
et cetera questions on and I regret that it's so

(45:08):
open ended, but basically just on kind of what it's
like being in what can be seen as an old
boys club. Now the old boys club moniker is changing
as we get some new like younger members of all genders,

(45:29):
and so that is rapidly changing. But as you said,
you've been in for longer than that twenty fifteen, I
think you said, And so I'm just like, I'm curious,
and I bet slash No that a lot of the
listeners are too. If there's any insights you could kind
of give us on moving in that space as somebody

(45:51):
who is a little bit of an outsider in that space, right.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
It is interesting that you bring that up. I have
been a NAVA member for nine years ten years next year,
and it seems like a long time, but I know
to some in NAVA that's a drop in the bucket.
And even today I do feel like a baby NAVA
member because we do have a lot of members and

(46:17):
plenty on the board who have been a member of
Nava Birth for decades. And I will say it is
a little intimidating, but I've never been intimidated, if that
makes any sense. Oh yeah, and that's something I really appreciate.
I've never been I don't want to say harassed, bully.

(46:39):
Those are such harsh sports. It's never been brought up
that I'm like a baby vexillologist or a younger younger
at forty, which is funny for me to speak about
a young but on the yeah, but on the a
younger side. For being a NAVA member, it's never been

(47:01):
anything but welcoming.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
And with that being said, I do understand as some
people seeing NAVA being around for a while, especially some
of the more senior members have been around for I
can understand where it'd be intimidating. If I wasn't directly
invited to be involved, that could just be my own
introversion or you know, millennial neurosis speaking, I wouldn't have

(47:26):
really really like step up. But I am glad I did.
It's been wonderful I have. It's been nothing, nothing but support,
And I will say that Naba is the gold star
on my resume, even more than the ghosts. The ghost.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Well, that star would just disappear, so oh yeah, that's
it would walk a walk. It makes sense.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
So I Naba has been nothing but welcoming to me,
and we are welcoming. We are growing, we do have
some younger members coming in, and it's really wonderful enheartening
for me to see Nava row and step into a future.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Yeah, fantastic. I mean so honestly, I was hoping that
segment would be pretty short because that segment being short
means there's not much to report on it, which in
turn means that, yeah, it's like it's been fine, it's
been normal and good, yeah, which is what it sounds

(48:31):
like you're saying, like I'm just obviously I don't and
can't have the same perspective as you on that so
you know it's yeah, uh yeah, I'm just curious, like
I don't move in. Admittedly many spaces that don't overwhelmingly

(48:52):
have people that look like me, to be totally frank
about it, and so I'm always interested in people's stories
where or where My story of that is not typical,
and I think it's interesting to talk about. But from
what you're saying, it's basically a non issue.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
I would say it's a non issue. It's been nothing
but welcoming. NABA is very welcoming of new members. Of course,
we do have a welcoming committee. We have a volunteer
who actually reaches out personally to new members, and so
we're getting a lot more interests. We're getting a lot
more members sign up.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
A lot of it.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, admittedly did have to do with COVID because people
were stuck in our houses and all that. So we
did have a searge for COVID. It dropped off a little,
but overall NAVA is growing. It's wonderful to see and
I am absolutely honored. Yeah gold star my resume, I do.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Say, yeah, And I think like off air, we also
talked to you are not You're not even the first
female that's been on the board. Is that correct? Oh?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
That is absolutely correct. In fact, in let me make
sure this correct. There have been women that have been
even president before me. We had Grace Cooper, There's Dorian Braverman,
there was there is a anti Plata, there is Okay, wonderful,
wonderful vexillologist. So it would be absolutely unfair for me

(50:26):
to say like being the only woman.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
And I know absolutely there.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Are foundations that were absolutely yeah. So yeah, being a
woman on the board has never been like a weird
issue at all. It's been so very natural.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
If anything, I made it an issue by even asking.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
But no, I mean it's it's it's something something good
to burn up because it's not. I mean, it didn't
really even occur to me that I am a woman
on the board among you know, more uh experienced male vexollologists.
But that's the fact that it's never really occurred to

(51:06):
me to bring it up kind of speaks to Nava's
openness and natural acceptance of anybody, right, Yeah, absolutely, Nava
is for anybody.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah, I mean the way I like to word like
who the show is for. But I think this also
extends to Nava, is that it's for Ve's heads of
all stripes exactly, And that's you know, me putting a
little bit of word play on it. But it also
literally is I mean what I say, like of all stripes,

(51:40):
like fucking anybody can can hop into NAVA, can like
do really well, can go really far. Like yeah, yeah,
if you've got the interest, then it doesn't matter who
you are. Is absolutely is the headline.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Yeah, it's funny you say that. I'm gonna have to
dig it up that it was any any Platoff that
had a wonderful, wonderful a Let me see if I
can actually find it here in my mess of Navit documents.
It's yeah, I'm glad I'm not screen sharing right now.
All of you think very lowly. Let me see, I'm

(52:22):
trying to remember which year it was.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Oh my goodness. You don't really realize on a fifty
how many documents you have and so how many.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Documents I have until I have to find them, and
then it's quite stressful. But any Platoff spoke wonderfully about
what Nabba is about, and she had this elegant thing
that of course I cannot see. Hi, I don't know
it off the top of my head. I would just absolutely,

(52:51):
but you're it. But I do have it somewhere, don't
you worry?

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Probably a hard thing to google too. Oh yeah, hold
on any platoff speech. H yeah, she she gave a
wonderful Oh wait, is it where no flag has gone before? No,
she's written a lot of okay, because then I was
gonna say, because then I might have actually found right now.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
Oh yeah, gosh, it's gonna bother me if I can't
find it.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
And is it old meetings?

Speaker 3 (53:18):
She she has written so many things, but specifically for
for Nabo, Who's welcome in novel. I'm trying to remember
which one that was. Its just me trying to associate
numbers with things. Is yeah, right, As I get older
and I attend more meetings, it's getting well. Of course

(53:39):
I can't find it now. And I found it the
other day, just I screwing around on my own computer.
I'm like, oh, I should remember that, and I will
never need this again. No, but of course we can
edit all of that. As I just blathering off.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
This is thrilling podcasting. People love it.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Okay, Oh my goodness, it's gonna it is gonna bother me.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
It's okay, we will, we will find it and we
can like put a link in later. Okay, and uh,
people that listen can find in the show notes. People
that view it can also find in the show notes
because you know, okay, wonderful I'm probably gonna put it
there either way. Yeah, maybe put a link up on
the screen, but anyway.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Yeah, once I find it, I will, I will let
you know.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
The headline is that any plots off had a killer speech.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Yes, absolutely, really encompasses what Nabo is about, right right,
And she said, I'm more eloquently than I was blathering
on for the last few minutes.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Do you have like a paraphrase of it or a
headline or would you rather not even.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
I'd rather not, but you but your Annie's any wonderful words.
But basically, Navos for everyone, whether you're have a slight
interest in flags, whether you're in the business or whatever
you are, Navos for everybody is the right reader's digest.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Version of it fair enough. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, I can't
find it either, sewing probably Oh yeah, no, it's keep
it moving from them.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
So there's things I find I'm like, oh it's sweet,
and then I forget.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Now it's all right, yeah, yeah, yeah, but no, okay,
so yeah, that is all definitely very interesting. I've never
been I can't remember the last time I was an
officer in anything, let alone an organization as big as NAVA. Actually,
I'm curious, like I don't know if you have this
on the top of your head or not, but like,
how big an organization is NAVA currently as far as

(55:36):
membership goes, As far.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
As membership goes, uh, the first number that's popping in
on my head is probably right around a thousand or
so members.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Globally, okay, and most in the US, but not all
most but not all.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Or in the United States and Canada. But we have
member Yeah, we have members from all over Europe. We
have members from Australia, we have members from New Zealand,
we have members from Cameroon. We have everywhere, absolutely everywhere,
And it's it's such a joint and honor to meet
members every year at at the annual meetings who are

(56:15):
able to make it.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Yeah, last year alone we had what did we have?
We had Cameroon and because we had the findings up
for the for the various countries of foreign or you know,
members from elsewhere.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Right, Cameroon. New Zealand was there represented. I know, I
think I want to say Germany. I'm not exactly sure.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
I can't remember either, could Yeah, I could dig.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
Up my notes and even speak to Peter Anson. Who
would who would know us?

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah? Who knows?

Speaker 3 (56:50):
We could pop that into the show notes too if
you wanted to. It's interested.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
And so many people that have like moved and like
Dean Thomas is from New Zealand, both lives in Arkansas. Weirdly,
it sounds it sounds accurate like among others. Yeah, anyway,
all right, that's probably good for the middle segment here

(57:16):
about Nava et cetera, et cetera. When we get into
the third segment here after the break, We've got a
few questions for Amber. We've got a few few very
interesting things on some Florida flags that may not be
the ones you expect. They may also be the ones
you expect if you listen to the top of the show.

(57:37):
But yeah, all that when we come back and we
will see you then. All right, all right, we are
back part three with Amber Adabury. And as I mentioned

(58:02):
again in the flagpole segment, uh, we have a flag
of a republic that may or may not exist, and
even saying that is probably going to get me on
some people's ship lists. But uh and uh and to
make it you on some people's ship lists do uh.
Granted those are my words, but not ambers. I will

(58:24):
let you kind of explain where this flag came from
and uh and what it is, all right.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Uh, So my favorite flag would have to be the
flag of the ung Republic. Now, for those of you
who don't know, the coun Republic is the flag of
Key West as an unrecognized micronation. There are there are

(58:52):
several reasons why I love this flag. It's just I
I do love the design, even though there's words all
over it and then a number right there. But as
we've learned from my love the Probo flag, I like
slightly unhinged flags, which is also funny to say, since
I'm not really a fan of the Maryland flags.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
So I have no rules here, so okay, yeah, totally fair.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Yeah. So basically, the long and short of the Conquered
Public flag is that in the I think it was
the early eighties, the Border Patrol had actually set up
a roadblock and an inspection point on US one going
into the Keys and vehicles, cars id be stopped to
search for illegal immigrants and narcotics. Now important thing to

(59:41):
know about the Keys. It's one road basically at least
of the time, one road in and one road out.
So they were said the Key West City Council was
complaining that they were being treated like like a separate country.
There was being treated like with these roadblocks. So like

(01:00:02):
if you're yeah, exactly, so if you are going to
treat us like a separate country, we will be a
super country. We are now the conkre Republic.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
So that's why part of the reason why the conk
now is a symbol of Peat West. We are the
Concretepublic now. And of course not a real micronation, but
do not say that to a native key.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Western, Okay. So it's not like it's not on the
same level as say Seaaland, which is probably the most
well known one. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
It is more of a protest kind of thing, a
very malicious compliance which I absolutely love, uh and I
feel like it just fits in non non compliance exactly,
like malicious non compliance, like you treat us like this,
we are this, which I feel feel is very admirable

(01:01:02):
and the culture of Key West. Is it fits right in?
Key West is like no other place.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Yeah, I don't know much Key West. So give me
like the you know, the elevator pitch on Key West
here like that. That kind of leads to all of this, right,
So I I do.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Love Key West.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
I am.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
I'm a Northeast Floridian, but I do love the Keys.
Of course, very southern, very we have this set. They
have the southernmost point in the United States. And of
course when people today think a Key West, they probably
think of Jimmy Buffett unfortunately, but a Key West.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
The vibe, there's really no describing it. I I can't
even I that's actually where I got married. It was
on uh yeah, we uh much younger. We stayed at
a campsite and we're able to sleep on the ground.
Cannot do that these days. So her body say, no,
you need a bed, right, I don't know. Just the

(01:02:06):
culture and atmosphere of Key West, it just really fits in.
I really don't have any words to describe it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
No. I mean as soon as you said Jimmy Buffett,
I was like, all right, I get the vibe of
this place, right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I'm personally not a fan of Jimmy Buffett.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Yeah, yeah, he sings about that. That's what really brought
a lot of attention to the Keys was Jimmy Buffett,
Which is I feel like it's a curse because he
brought a lot of like strange development to the Keys
that you know, it's it's changed, but you know things
are about change, unfortunately and for fortunately sometimes right. And

(01:02:45):
so the Keys are islands, right, a string of islands. Yes,
the Keys is all the islands. Uh, and Key West
is a specific one. I guess you could say the
main one. Uh. I got married in Key West simply
because it's easier to say Key West.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
No, I got married in Key West, but our campsite
was at Bokachka, which is another key, a little about
maybe fifteen miles away.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Yeah, you know what to tell me?

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
Yeah, yeah, it's oh sure of course, right, go on,
go on. Everyone everyone has a knowledge at the Keys,
all right. It is when my h my Florida and
this comes in, I feel like everybody knows everything about everything,
So forgive me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Yeah, I know you're like, wait, does he know I don't? Okay, right,
so okay, so and you can get there. So sorry,
I'm like looking this up in real time too. You
can get there via bridge. You don't have to like
take a boat there.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
No, you can get there via bridge. There is the
seven Mile Bridge, which, uh, probably one of my favorite bridges.
And it is odd to have a favorite bridge, I know,
and I have two favorite bridges. Switches another podcast altogether,
but primarily even today, it's still primarily by Bridger is

(01:04:07):
a tiny airport, but Key West is still very, very
separate from the rest of Florida. There are yeah, they
say Florida is like the Australia of the United States.
That would make Key West the Florida of Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Say, oh my god, yeah that that tracks. That makes sense, right, yeah,
I okay, Yeah, I've never been to Key West. I
don't know if I've ever even been to is that
close to Miami. I don't know where anything in Florida is.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Miami, Floridians. It's a couple hundred miles away from Miami.
But actually, I feel like I should know my own
states geography miles from West.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
To We're googling my own states geography.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
I mean, I I've done that. Shit. Yeah, it's about
one hundred and fifty miles from Miami. It's about a
four hour drive ish a lot of bridges. I see
it now again. Thrilling podcasting. Not to be confused with
Florida Islands, which.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
Is another another thing altogether apparently anyway, So all right,
so we've gone through kind of the history of the flag,
like described for the listeners. The flag itself on a
kind of like visual you know level it is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Of course, there's more words on it than necessarily needs
to be. There is a dark blue, really nice shade
of dark blue. And when Key West was founded eighteen
twenty yeah, eighteen twenty eight. And there are some constellations
on either side of the sun, and in the middle
of the sun is a honk shot and it says

(01:05:51):
concrete public over the top, he says eighteen twenty eight,
right below that and to one side and Key West
and the bottom in case you were still wondering what
any of this was. So it is a messy flag.
But I think this is my Maryland flag, honestly, like
it is. Yeah, so I understand where Marylanders are coming.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
From, you know, like say no, like I get that,
I mean, do say mark because we need more description.
But on that point. I do get that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
I do get now it is the conquer public pliant.
Listen to a flag? Is my Maryland flag?

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Right? Yeah? Right? That makes sense? And it's got the
what it's got a sun with what five six or
what eleven points in the middle. Uh. I assume that
has something to do with something, but you never know,
you never know it. Does it also have the like
Southern cross and Northern cross or what are the two?

(01:06:54):
I don't know. It has just collations on it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
Yeah, let me look that up.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
I'm not sure which I can vamp for long enough
for you to look up? Right? Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
Yeah, I feel like I should know more about this flag.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
It just kind of is no, no, no, I mean,
and I'm sure like actually I did mean to ask
this earlier, Like do you see it a bit in Florida,
like even even in Sant Augustine, which is not well,
actually where is Saint Augustine?

Speaker 3 (01:07:26):
Saint Augustine is northeast Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Okay, so not close to the conquer Republic, No, not
at all.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
We're closer to Georgia than we are to the concre public. Uh.
It looks like the yeah, the uh stars printed on
the Concrepublic he West flag symbolized swan and the Northern Rocks.
Oh no, but I am North Florida. We don't really
see the pack Republic flag much here. I think there's
one hanging in a bar called trade Winds, which makes

(01:07:57):
sense for trade winds, but you you see it more
as you go further down, and once you're in the Keys,
it's it's everywhere right right, and from colonies and et cetera.
I guess kind of like my last question on that flag,
and probably should have been my first question on that
flag is do people use it in a similar way

(01:08:19):
to the Gainsten flag like the you know, I doubt
there's anybody listening to this that doesn't know what that is.
But in case this is your first episode or something,
that is the yellow flag with the coiled up snake
that says don't trot on me, right, I don't to
my knowledge as of right now, I don't think the

(01:08:42):
Congrepublic flag has been co opted for any movements like that.
I of course could be wrong. If it has been,
it's either been squashed, which is not unlike with something
Key Westerners would be passionate about, or just take off
or I haven't seen it. To my knowledge, it hasn't

(01:09:03):
been co opted like.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
The Gatsch It's something like I almost feel bad for
even putting that out into the world, but it's something
that I could imagine happening for the obvious reasons, right, yeah, absolutely,
for the reasons of being like, you know, like fucking
don't at me, Like, just do not come at me.

(01:09:26):
This is my new republic.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
Yeah. I don't believe it's been co opted like that.
Just I think it was like a tongue in cheek
situation in the eighties. It just kind of stuck around,
whereas the gats and flag had a severe meaning at
a time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Well, that's good. And as a fellow tongue in cheek
situation from the eighties that's stuck around. This is going
to be me signing off. I think here we need
to start winding down. Just all right, we're just reading
from the wiki here. But as part of the protest,
Mayor Wardlow was proclaimed proclaimed Prime Minister of the Public,

(01:10:08):
which immediately declared war against the US, breaking a loaf
of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man
dressed in a naval uniform who I presumably wasn't like
an actual guy in the navy.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
You know, I'm not sure. I think it would have
to be, because they surrendered one minute later to that
guy and then applied for a billion dollars in for nay.
So it's really coming out like a Looney Tunes situation.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Yeah, that is the headline that they they surrendered after
one minute the guy they to the man in the uniform.
But it's never needed. It is literally citation needed.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
But you know, I can picture that happening. I'm breaking
like a loaf of bread over some like sky's head
and then like surrendering twomen and asking for dollars if
it hasn't been in that situation. Honestly, that's a good point.
You know what, He who hasn't broken a loaf of
stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dress

(01:11:13):
in a naval uniform and then surrendered to him in
under one minute, let him cast the first stone or
the first chunk of stale bread, or the yeah or.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
The tiny nugget of steel breath. Anyway, as a fellow
joke of the nineteen eighties, I think it is my
role here to wind this down and and ask you
Amber for not just like where you can be found,
but any like causes, anything that you want to get

(01:11:45):
a few more like eyes and ears on anything like that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
Oh, absolutely, Anyone is free to contact me directly at
my my NABA email, which is I feel like I
should know this stright off the top of my head
VP first at NAVA dot org. Now, if I may
plug something here, something that I have been very passionate

(01:12:10):
about within the last week and many many, many of
us Floridians. There is something that they tried to sneakily
push through called the Great Outdoors Initiative. This was Elite document,
Elite document stating that either seven or nine I believe
it's seven state parks would be partially torn down to

(01:12:33):
build hotels, tickleball courts, golf courses, things like that. Things
we don't need are beautiful state parks. We only found
out because of Elite document. They had a meeting at
two pm on a Tuesday, something that most people can

(01:12:53):
really possibly make it to for one reason or another,
because of work, as a family, et cetera. It was
a pre planned preson pation with no real spots for questions.
This leaked document led to protests across the state, hundreds
of protests. It was for both sides of the coin.

(01:13:14):
And it doesn't matter what your ticket is. And the elections,
you could say everybody was enraged by this, especially the
fact they tried to sneakily push it through. Because of
the outrage, are scaling back and tucking their tail between
their legs. But of course this is no reason to stop.
We need to keep an eye on us. We need

(01:13:35):
to keep going. We have to save our state parts.
We cannot develop Florida anymore. Florida I feel I was
already reaching as point of our development. We have our
green spaces. We need these green spaces. Florida has so
much unique environment. We have so many unique species and

(01:13:57):
marshes and areas that are environmentally unique, and we cannot
destroy that. But things like this, so we have to.
We have to hold their feet to the fire to
destroy this initiative. So this terribly named Great Outdoors Initiative,
look that up right. The people you need to it
can't just be Floridians that can be angry about this.

(01:14:20):
It needs to be people outside of Florida. They're actively
destroying what makes Florida beautiful and unique and why we
have been a paradise that people have wanted to go
to for hundreds of years. We cannot let this happen.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
Look that up. Yeah, and that is wildly important. Yeah,
we talked to off camera about it too, and she
was just as passionate there, trust me. So we are
absolutely going to include the links to that in these
show notes. I will have the links to that for
the viewers on the screen here, so you can go
to all the relevant sites to help basically to combat

(01:15:00):
that erroneously named initiative. So yes, I almost feel foolish
just plugging the show after something like that, but uh,
you know, it is what it is. So you can
go to our link tree. You can find everything there.
There's a Patreon, there's a discord. I want to plug

(01:15:23):
everything individually, but go to the link tree. It is
linktree dot com. Slash flagged fore content all spelled out
on anything with an AT sign. We are at flagged
for content for like the number. You take what you
can get sometimes And yeah, I think that is it Amber,

(01:15:48):
if I recall correctly, you had a way to kind
of close this thing out that they just did not
match up to what I had, So uh, other than
the one that we've already gone over, so other than
that one.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Yeah, other than that one.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
So if you want to go into the sign off,
I am. I'm ready to have it here absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
My friends, UH ask me about vexillology and what NAVA
is and what I do, and I tell them that
I study red flags, that I no longer collect them,
and that's always funnier in my head. But I am
the target of.

Speaker 2 (01:16:26):
My own jokes, so I know the feeling and it's
most of my jokes. And we will catch you all
on the fly side in a couple of weeks. Thanks
for having me, Hey, thanks for being here. Flag for

(01:16:48):
Content is proud to be sponsored by Flags for Good.
Go to flagsfogod dot com for more information.