turning off special characters

This may sound like a stupid question, but I have only been using my new iBook for a few hours.

I opened up the Special Characters window from the Finder toolbar and now there is an American Flag by my clock that I can not get to go away. Is there any way to get rid of this?

Thanks,
Jon

Just go to the System Preferences, and then select the "International" preference pane. Go to the "Input Menu" preference pane. Uncheck the "Show input menu in menu bar" box, and Voila!

Thank you jcromartie