(Video credit: Google video)
I was reading Slate.com today and one article was about flag flying: "'I fervently believe the glorious Star-Spangled Banner should wave over our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard heros [sic]. President Obama wants to raise the rainbow flag of the homosexual rights movement over them,' read a recent fundraising letter from the conservative Family Research Council. I don't want to be associated with people who fly the flag, metaphorically or otherwise, to telegraph their cause; the Stars and Stripes has become so freighted with assumptions that it seemed almost safer to me to avoid dealing with it altogether. There was nothing I felt I needed to prove, to friends, neighbors, or anyone else.
"But I put it up. The flag was big and unwieldy, so I was a little self-conscious as I tried to screw it into the base. Despite this, it felt familiar, almost as if I'd been doing it my whole life and was merely trying to recall the best method.
It didn't feel like a political act. In fact, as I surveyed my work, I was surprised and moved by the sense of satisfaction that came from reclaiming the flag from partisanship."
This took me back to review the flag in my past:
As a Boy Scout, I learned about when and how to fly and fold the flag;
As a student of history, I learned about the U.S. role and suddenly realized that that thrill I felt when I saw the flag was gone.
As a war protester, I read about people angry that "hippie scum" were contemptuously sewing the flag onto their clothing.
As a resident of Washington DC, I lived near a Marine base and saw them exercising in the morning, some wearing flag running shorts.
As a government worker, I saw political appointees wearing flag lapel pins when an administration who said, as reported by CNN and other media, "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."
And in the following election, I saw candidates being charged with not really loving their country because they did not wear the flag lapel pins (to say nothing of them being admonished for not holding their hands over their hearts when the national anthem was sung -- something I have never thought was required).
So, Now I'm showing our flag this holiday, remembering those who fought for our country, whether the wars were just or not (and whether they were heterosexual or homosexual), as a symbol of all of us, not just those who politically agree on issues.
(Cartoon credit to: Philadelphia Inquirer)
As Carl Scurz (Union Army General, later US Senator, and US Secretary of the Interior) stated: "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
