The American Flag...

...has come to mean a lot of different things to different people....democracy or military might, liberty or oppression. When I was a child we learned the pledge of allegiance to the flag in first grade .First thing in the morning  we put our hands over our hearts and recited it every day.


I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United  States of  America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.


For the most part we were pretty indifferent to what it meant, too young to really think about it much. After that we just took it for granted and at some time in our history I think it stopped being recited, in school, or anywhere. 

The Vietnam War is what turned me against the flag and divided the country. In my eyes, it stood for an unjust war, which forced many young men to fight for a cause they did not believe in. Those with means found ways to stay out of the war. Those without were drafted and sent to fight an unwinnable war.

 9/11, the day the planes flew into the World Trade Buildings, I think feelings about the flag, and the country for which it stands, (no longer under God, for I think that was dropped sometime in the 50's) have evolved and changed. Immediately after 9/11, the flag was a sign of unity against a common enemy. Flags flew from homes, cars, businesses and churches.  My patriotism rose to the surface and in the face of a horrible and incomprehensible tragedy I did feel a surge of pride when I saw the flag. It was, for a brief moment, a sign of hope and the sanity of a nation pulling together.

But then we found ourselves fighting a war in Iraq, which the powers that be justified by lying about the reasons for it. Factions began to emerge and fractures in the political system began to appear. This culminated with the emergence of Trump who knew nothing, if not how to deepen the cracks and irreparably divide the country. The Stars and Stripes  stood for anything people wanted it to stand for...for and against civil rights, gun control, voting and gender issues,  instead of the wider mantle of democratically chosen laws. I was embarrassed by it and what it had come to stand for. Old Glory was co-opted by conservative America. Liberals hid it away.

The Washington riot of Jan 6th was the culmination of this sort of symbolism. Many in the mob that poured into Washington, intent on stopping a vote that had been legally certified, carried the very flag of the government they wanted to overthrow.

For this staunch liberal, that was the moment I began to look at the flag differently. Instead of the flag on the flagpole used to critically beat a Capitol policeman, it was the flag that still hung in the Senate chambers where the certification of the election was eventually carried out despite the best efforts of the mindless mob. It is the flag that draws millions of immigrants to our shores  for a better life, and the flag that flies over statehouses, libraries and fire stations ... the flag that stands for a constitution that has shaped the laws of the land since it was written in 1787, the world's longest surviving written charter of government

This country isn't perfect, nor is the literal interpretation of the Constitution, but I'm coming to believe that the flag stands for something that is bigger than all of us, and to hope we have the capacity for patriotism to be not a dirty word, but something that has the capacity to begin to heal the horrible divisions that have divided us. I don't want MAGA Republicans to co-opt a flag that has been a symbol of unity since 1777.

Many, many thanks to all of you who bestowed hearts and kind words  for the second time in two weeks. I'm really touched and proud to be part of this community. Maybe we should have a flag ;-)