When I was in high school, I took two months off from my senior year during the winter as I was employed at the local ski resort in Northern Wisconsin as ski patrol. A part of my daily tasks before opening the lifts, was to raise 20 or so flags at the resort that represented countries that participated in the Winter Olympics and then take them down at the end of the day. I had to raise the flags of the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, & China, along with the other 'friendly' countries during the Cold War. Regardless, we always respected each country's flag as to not let them touch the ground upon raising & lowering them, friendly or not.