Badges and Terms

[Tim McDaniel]

On Fri, 20 Jun 1997, dennis grace <amazing at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> Nah.  Not a "good reason" at all.  Of course the Red Cross isn't a
> trademark.  If it were, the Geneva Convention couldn't have required
> that it be used as one of the four accepted DO NOT
> BOMB--HUMANITARIAN AID STATION symbols.
...
> This is yet another example of our heralds being overly sensitive to
> the claims of outsiders.

What I heard at the time is that there is an international treaty
concerning use of a red cross ("couped": arms truncated, not like the
ensign of England).  That report provoked an unusual amount of
sensitivity -- courtesy is one issue, but treaties even trump federal
laws.

> Boy scouts use the red cross on their merit badges.  First aid kits
> are labeled with red crosses.

I do recall seeing the latter, tho not recently (not that I've been
looking).  Those would be counterarguments.

I'll CC this mail to Master Da'ud ibn Auda, who was Laurel King of
Arms at least during part of this time.

-- 
Daniel de Lincoln
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com
tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.