As citizens all over the United States prepare to celebrate Memorial Day I can't help but wonder whether I should hang an American flag in front of my house.
While some Americans will spend May 31st hitting beaches and lakes, focusing on the fact that Memorial Day is the first unofficial day of summer, still others will attend parades and civic events, celebrating the holiday as it was originally intended, reflecting on those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. The assumption one might make here is that those attending the parades will hang flags while those at the beach will not. That would be my assumption, my judgment call. But I know how wrong I am to judge.
I won't be at a beach or a parade, I will be at a soccer tournament, but I do own a flag.
Actually, I purchased my flag more than three decades ago on a sixth grade visit to Gettysburg. A day after 9/11, I dug it out of a box marked "Cari's stuff" written in my mother's scrawl. The box with the flag buried deep inside had moved with me into my adult home, but remained stored in my suburban DC garage for years. I pulled out the flag, attempted to smooth out the creases and then, like many Americans in the days, weeks and months after September 11th, I hung the flag proudly in front of my house.
About a year later, tattered and tired, the flag was unceremoniously taken down. It hasn't been hung since.
With Memorial Day upon us, I wasn't completely conscious of my flag-hanging hesitation until I met Alison Buckholtz a military wife and author of Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War. Her feeling, that the flag had been soiled by partisan politics, I came to realize, was exactly what was causing my hesitation, was prompting me to ask if I should fly the flag.
"This is the first year that we have owned a big American flag that can wave from the front yard," Buckholtz told me recently. I was, admittedly, a little surprised. She had purchased the flag, she said, for a photo shoot, for a photograph that would accompany an article she wrote. I was surprised because her husband, after all, is a career military man, a Navy Commander in the middle of a year-long deployment in Iraq.
Buckholtz explained that the symbol of American freedom, "the flag, had come to symbolize partisanship. I didn't want to be associated with people who used the flag or who exploit the flag for their cause, for political purposes. But, putting the flag up ... was a really transformational experience for me. I think the reason it was comforting was because I was able in a way to finally see that the flag was a non-partisan symbol which was something that had never dawned on me before. In putting it up it felt like I was almost reclaiming the flag and I was able to see that the flag doesn't belong to any one political party. It sounds really sad to say that it was an epiphany to realize that the flag belongs to all of us, that it belongs to me, that it belongs in front of my house as much as it belongs in front of someone else's. Putting it up or not putting it up is not a statement of patriotism or loyalty, it's a very pure act."
How could an American symbol, more iconic than cowboys and apple pie, more American than even the American Bald Eagle, Mount Rushmore or the Monument, have been abducted by a particular brand of politics? How could Old Glory have become a political pawn, not just inside the beltway but throughout the entire United States?
The American flag, after all, belongs to everyone in the United States, it is a national symbol not a donkey or an elephant that carries on its back a particular political thought process.
What happened to the sentiment expressed by George Packer in the New York Times less than three weeks after 9/11? In witnessing the unfurling of tens of thousands of American flags in the wake of the terror attack, on September 30th, 2001, Packer wrote, "... the American flag now represents a national community that came under attack."
Less than a decade later why does the flag no longer represent that entire commmunity?
"There have been more conservative elements that have tried to capture the flag, appropriate the flag, even wrap themselves up in it," political commentator, columnist and writer, Steve Roberts, said during a recent conversation we had. "I don't think that is appropriate. Every one in the United States should have equal pride in the flag. The flag should be a non-partisan object"
Yet even statistics prove that the flag is, in fact, a partisan tool. According to research by Smart Politics , a website run by the University of Minnesota, House Republicans are "36 percent more likely to incorporate Old Glory into the banner of their page, with nearly half of all House Republicans positioning the Stars and Stripes as the main image on their website."
George Packer's essay in the New York Times, gives us a looking glass view into the way American citizens feelings for the flag transformed in the wake of the terrorist attacks. In the piece, "The Way We Live Now: 9-30-01; Recapturing The Flag," Packer writes that in the decades prior to 9/11 "Patriotism became the exclusive property of conservatives ... My family would sooner have upholstered the furniture in orange corduroy than show the colors on Memorial Day. Display wasn't just politically suspect, it was simply bad taste: sentimental, primitive, sometimes aggressive ... In the days that followed [9/11], we all witnessed an outbreak of civic-mindedness so extreme that it seemed American character had changed overnight. As flags bloomed like flowers, I found that they tapped emotion as quickly as pictures of the missing. To me, these flags didn't represent flabby complacence, but alertness, grief, resolve, even love. They evoked fellow feeling with Americans, for we had been attacked together," wrote the author of Blood of the Liberals.
Yet less than ten short years since Packer wrote of American flags blooming like summer flowers, Old Glory has been appropriated, perhaps misappropriated, as well as debated, argued about, and even nit-picked over.
Seven years ago, PBS Political Commentator Bill Moyers, found it necessary to write about, in other words - explain -- his decision to wear his flag lapel pin on air. Like Buckholtz, Moyers decided it was time to take back the flag.
On February 28, 2003 Moyers wrote, "I wore my flag tonight for the first time. Until now I haven't thought it necessary to display a little metallic icon of patriotism for everyone to see. It was enough to vote, pay my taxes, perform my civic duties ...,I put it on to take it back. The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo ... as if it is the good housekeeping seal of approval. During the State of the Union, did you notice Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No administration's patriotism is ever in doubt, only its policies ... The flag belongs to the country, not to the government. And it reminds me that it's not un-American to think that war -- except in self-defense -- is a failure of moral imagination, political nerve, and diplomacy. Come to think of it, standing up to your government can mean standing up for your country."
Four years later, pin-less in Iowa in 2007, then presidential candidate Barack Obama spent days defending his decision not to wear that same metal flag pin. "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism."
That's exactly how Alison Buckholtz, wife of a career military officer, feels. Flying the flag or not flying the flag, wearing the flag pin or not wearing the flag pin, isn't important. What is important is what's in your heart.
"People would certainly expect me to fly the flag because I'm a military spouse, it's just that I would never have expected it of myself," says Buckholtiz, who grew up in suburban DC as far away from military culture as one could imagine. Now, eight years into her status as a military wife, she writes a column for Slate, Deployment Diary: Notes from a Military Wife. "I valued [the flag] as a symbol but it didn't have personal meaning for me as a symbol. What I see now is that the flag is a pure symbol; it's not weighted. There are no assumptions hampering it, weighting it down. It is a very simple expression of something profound."
I still haven't decided whether I will fly the flag. But thanks to Alison Buckholtz, I know that all that's important is that I know and believe what is in my own heart. And, since I live in the United States, I am lucky that I have the freedom to share or not share those thoughts with my neighbors and my nation.
Follow Cari Shane Parven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/insidebeltway
Brenna Berger: Military Families: Practicing Independence Following My Husband's Deployment
I realized that dealing with a deployment does have an upside. You definitely find out what you are made of.
Read the novel, Rescue at Pine Ridge, “RaPRâ€, a great story of black military history…the first generation of Buffalo Soldiers.
How do you keep a people down? ‘Never’ let them ‘know’ their history.
The 7th Cavalry got their butts in a sling again after the Little Big Horn Massacre, fourteen years later, the day after the Wounded Knee Massacre. If it wasn’t for the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, there would of been a second massacre of the 7th Cavalry.
Read the novel, “Rescue at Pine Ridgeâ€, 5 stars Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the youtube trailer commercial…and visit the website http://www.rescueatpineridge.com
I hope you’ll enjoy the novel. I wrote it from my mini-series movie of the same title, “RaPR†to keep my story alive. Hollywood has had a lot of strikes and doesn’t like telling our stories…its been “his-story†of history all along…until now. The movie so far has attached, Bill Duke directing, Hill Harper, Glynn Turman and a host of other major actors in which we are in talks with…see imdb.com at; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925633/
When you get a chance, also please visit our Alpha Wolf Production website at; http://www.alphawolfprods.com and see our other productions, like Stagecoach Mary, the first Black Woman to deliver mail for Wells Fargo in Montana, in the 1890’s, “spread the wordâ€.
Peace.
Here is what I suggest to the author: Don't buy a new flag. Instead, take the money and donate it to a charity for the families of fallen soldiers. That is a heck of a lot more patriotic than any symbol you can hang from your house.
And thanks to the Old Guard, they ensure that its done in Arlington. The VFW and Boy Scouts do it in most of the other cemetaries throughout the land.
I am a veteran of Direct Combat in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1994 and 1994. As is protocal, service men and women salute the nations colors six paces befor arriving to it and hold the salute for six paces after passing it....On or about October 6th (those days ran together from sleep deprivation) I was walking by a place called the "doughnut" at the University Compound. I had a choice as I walked. There was a flag pole in the center of the circular structure. I could stay in the shade, or go directly across the courtyard and salute the flag. I deliberatly walked with my head held high. I was crying, as I saluted our county's flag. I did so to honor the men that I had worked on as a medic to keep alive during the previous three or so days. Many of those men died,19 in fact.
Many men and women are sacrificing so much every minute of every day. They are hungry, tired, scared, angry and wanting to come home. One thing that those service men and women have in common is that Our Nation's Colors are sewn on thier arm. The very least we can do is fly our flag to honor them and those that are never, ever going to hug thier loved ones again.
Mahalo and Peace
At the district court in South Texas is an accusations against Halliburton. But the gathering of forensic evidence is
allowed only after 31.12.2010(European Date Format). Furthermore is a news blackout to a running criminal procedure process
in validity. In Alabama, an indictment for Halliburton will be delayed in response to an "a posteriori"-schedule after two replacement drills
completed in August and a provisional interim Court-Hearing for the 6th July will be expanded to 3 further months:
"Granting the defendant's" motion to the extent it seeks an extension of time to file its
answer "[Halliburton]." that courts often extend additional time to answer to defendants in cases
being considered by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation for centralization. See, e.g.,
Leavell v. Heartland Payment Systems "[Halliburton].
"In Leavell, the defendant was extended to additional ninety (90) days to answer
the complaint "[Halliburton]. Not only Halliburton but also the government is being accused:
Extract e) from an indictment in Alabama a) - t)
"e. Failing to promulgate, implement and enforce rules and regulations pertaining to
the safe operations of the Deepwater Horizon and oil well which, if they had been
soon promulgated, implemented and enforced, would have averted the fire,
explosion, sinking and oil spill [CASE NO. 10-cv-24] Alabama-judge [William E. Cassady] ". Any other questions, if such documents of the court costs $ 0.08 cents / per page?
Don't confuse the symbol with what it really represents, which is maybe the issue you're getting it at. Clearly the two parties see the reality of how close we are to those ideals differently. We all value the symbol equally, but liberals tend to by more skeptical about the myth that America has "arrived" to the realization of those ideals. Listening to conservatives you get a sense that we did arrive at those ideals once in our history and need to return (read: regress) to that era. Liberals don't buy this mythical nostalgic narrative and want reforms to get us closer to these values.
Again, the flag is a symbol of a set of ideals that we have not yet attained. I'll fly my flag too, but that's what it means to me. It reminds not only of the ideals themselves, but of the chasm between them and our past and present reality. It inspires to keep working to narrow that chasm.
I remember when Pacific Stars and Stripes did a photo essay on how to smoke dope through your M-16, dumb, but widespread.
Want the real truth, ask some grunt. Not the REMFs in the A/C hooches getting their tickets punched, and they were legion.
Memoir of a former front-line-soldier of the U. S Army's last all Black combat unit, formerly known as Buffalo-Soldiers, which I found to be very enlightening.
At 17, the author enlisted in the United States Army and after basic training was assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment Combat Team, originally known as the BUFFALO-SOLDIERS and found himself fighting in a bloody war in a place he had never heard of before, Korea. During nine months of fierce combat, The now author developed not only a soldier's mentality but a political consciousness as well.
His conclusion were,,, only the military industries & its investors, benefited the most. While he and others warriors were left with nightmares,,, which in most cases, are taken with them to their graves.
And be proud that we are Americans,no politics,grandstanding and finger pointing, just admire a truly great flag,that is the standard most countries wish they had, Be a proud American everyday ,that feeling is not a statue you look at,it is how you carry yourself everyday and realize why we are so proud.
Remarkable to me then as it still is today is that my father was willing to sacrifice the love of his flag for the right of others. This right, like all of our rights, is beyond reproach of government because a price that has been paid to ensure them. Still, if my father would ever have personally witnessed anyone burning a flag I wouldn’t doubt for a second what he would have done. Carrying his cane, and not using it to walk, I could only imagine the “conversation†that would have taken place.
Part 3
Several years ago, not long before the death of my father, a great political debate of flag burning raged in Congress. It was at this time that I remember my father, now aged and walking with the help of a cane, restlessly sitting in his chair watching the evening news report the day’s political contests. My father’s emotional attachment to the American flag was profound. And it was painful to watch him, watch a protester burn a flag on the television. Looking back on it now, I guess that I assumed that my father was upset because the symbol of his country and the symbol of freedom that so many had died to protect was being desecrated. Was I right about my father’s anger? Not completely because I did not listen to him well enough. Maybe because I did not engage him in a conversation about the events unpleasantly unfolding, he recognized in me a sense of ignorance and rose to meet his duty to speak to the purpose and significance of the sacrifices for freedom. It was then that he spoke to his belief that freedom, even the freedom to burn a flag that was provided by the heroes that did not come home.
Part 2
My father, like all veterans, shares the unique perspectives of our freedoms through life. Severing aboard a troop ship in the South Pacific, he helped transport the countless men into battle during WWII. His ship, like so many others, was complemented with the lives of our country’s sons, brothers and fathers, on a journey to pay the price for our freedoms, our destiny. Sadly, the complement of lives returning on his ship was far less than when they sailed from Pearl Harbor weeks before. My father could only grasp, to speak of the scope of sacrifice not in terms of individual graves on those far away shores, but a task so large that to intern the dead a bulldozer was needed to plow mass graves in the sands. Though he seldom spoke of it, this terrible vision of the price of freedom was a scare that my father proudly bore. Like many other veterans, my farther truly believed that the real heroes in any war, the truest of patriots, are those that did not come home. I suppose that it was his emotion, his belief that the survivors of war are the voices of the fallen heroes. They, with their burden of war’s scare, also hold a duty unto the heroes to speak to the purpose and significance of the sacrifices for freedom.
Part 1