Whose Flag Is This, Anyway?
Starting about the time of early Ronald Reagan, the Republican Right played capture-the-flag with Old Glory. If you were a true patriot, you gave all your speeches before massed American flags and wore the symbol of one in your lapel. And, of course, to be a true patriot meant also that you were a member of the Republican Right. No other Americans admitted to the brotherhood and sisterhood of patriotism.
Predictably, this would come to an accusation -- what substitutes for serious debate these days -- that Senator Barack Obama was not wearing a flag pin and therefore, ipso facto, was no patriot.
So, here's a modest proposal. All of us who support Barack Obama for president should now wear flag pins. This will signal that we are all just as patriotic as anyone on the right. And it will signal that we are all for Obama. If we all do this, then when we see a flag pin we will know we are seeing another Obama supporter.
Go right out now and buy a pocketful of flag pins. Give them to all your friends. Show your support for America and for Obama. I've got mine on. It's our flag too!
But, you might ask, what about those flag wavers on the right? That's their problem.
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I'm all for the wearing of flag pins as long as they are "Made in America."
I fail to see how you can support the troops or proclaim your patriotism by sporting a flag pin, ribbon magnet, or waving a flag that bears the "Made in China" label.
The Army had a similar problem when the soldiers found out that their berets were all made in China and then the Army hurried to get them made in the USA. Procurement - idiots!
Patriotism is a dismal proposition. Patriotism is what invites young men and women to sacrifice their very lives for ill conceived causes. Patriotism says "I'm special because random probabilities allowed for me to be born here instead of there." Patriotism is what causes the public to support the loss of their rights for the supposed good of the country.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
I'm in, as long as I can have a bigger flag pin than everyone else. That'll show that I'm more patriotic than all the others. Those little flag pin wearers hate America.
hilarious! i love it! i just blew my coffee out of my nose! thanks!
The idea that the flag of the United States is the exclusive property of a particular ideology is nonsense; but that the rest of us allow it to happen is worse. Hart is right. We have to take back the flag and what better way to do it than to take that symbol of right-wing patriotic bluster and associate with our candidate, Obama. I really don't know why this idea seems to provoke so much derision. Let the flag belong to all and stand those principles of self-government that were a new thing in the world not so long ago.
The Democrats have been assimilated.
Great Idea Gary but guess what, I've been dong that since 9/11..
And I'm a real Democrat and a proud radical..
If the left showed it's patriotic and took back the flag, that would be removing a powerful symbol from those who trample it daily in every way imaginable..the Republicans and Fascists..
In the 60's we often flew and had flags hanging on our walls I've painted flags on barns and designed the Stars4Peace Google that it's my design..
Patriotism is nothing more than an emotional response to an accident of birth.
When I hear otherwise intelligent people use the word "patriotism" without snickering or rolling their eyes, I feel queasy. Much like when sentient adults talk about god with straight faces.
The Kinks have a wonderful line in the song "Victoria" : I was born, lucky me, in the land that I love. Weren't we all? So you're proud to be an American. But if you wre born in France or Brazil or China, would you love the country of your birth any less? Ask yourself that question, and you immediately see what a foolish, empty, base emotion patriotism truly is.
Patriotism is the nice name we give to nationalism when it is our own. Patriotism serves only one purpose : to convince otherwise intelligent, normal young men (and women) to kill or die.
Patriotism necessarily sets up an us-vs-them mentality. It can lead to only one logical conclusion - we are good, and they are bad. But that's a logic built upon a false axiom, and thus worthless.
It is an insult - a crass, immoral insult - to suggest that any soldier ever died "for the flag". (And if any soldier feels that way, they are a fool.) The flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Star Spangled Banner - these are mere symbols. They are no more important than apple pie or the Super Bowl. Would you kill or die for the Super Bowl?
in general, i agree with you. the problem is your first line. it feels nice, it rolls out, it's pretty. but...it could be applied to the feelings you have for your mother, too. so it sort of falls apart for me right there. labeling something "an accident of birth" makes it no less important to you, in reality.
But loving your mother doesn't cause you to unquestionably strap on a gun and run off to a foreign land at the beckon call of your president. People tend to love their mothers because their mothers tend to nurture them. Mothers tend to want the best for their children; they don't view their children as commodities.
Thanks so much for so eloquently voicing my own thoughts. Wearing a flag pin is just as lame as those cheap plastic American flags people flew from the windows of their SUVs after 9/11. Anyone who does anything like this is just putting on a show. Posers.
Remember all those bumper stickers from the first Gulf War? Proud to be an American. I thought at the time that we should have had a $1 tax put on a gallon of gas to make all the citizens at home contribute to the War effort. This would allow all the Patriots to put there money where their mouths were. Now here we stand after the second Gulf War totally in debt to the Chinese and Arabs. Nice going Patriots. The Repubs suck, Period!
I already got a flag. It's on the right shoulder of the uniforms I wore in Iraq.
Get back to me about the flag pin when the chicken-hawks earned that.
'Til then F&*#k 'em!
I already got a flag too, on the right shoulder of my Boy Scout uniform. And I had one on the right shoulder of my Karate uniform. That's two uniforms to your one. I win!
See how dumb it all is?
I guess by chickenhawks you're referring to George Bush, who managed to do his service by attending keggers with his frat boy pals, Dick Cheney, who got three deferments to steer clear of any actual fighting, and all the other neocon architects of Bush's war - not one of whom ever saw any action - but were only too eager to send you into harm's way.
FIVE deferments, balthus. FIVE deferments.
Cheney, Bush and the others who so joyfully send soldiers to die or worse in Iraq look at war as an ADVENTURE.
That's because they've never had to kill strangers in a foreign country for no reason other than the greed and megalomania of those who know nothing of the suffering and death that war is.
Well-meaning (at least in their own minds) but misguided people keep trying to salvage the concept of patriotism, but the unpleasant reality is that it has become hopelessly corrupted by those on the right.
No, we haven't tired of patriotism, the idea, but patriotism, the brand. The very people who least understand what patriotism is--who haven't served our country, who don't know history and laws that inform us patriotism is standing up for what is right and good, who are leeches upon our nation's economy and spirit--these are the ones who tried to coopt patriotism for their profit.
They painted patriotism as Big Brother and yes-men; convinced the gullible and uneducated that the only way to be a patriot was to support the war but not expect that money to go to our troops, their equipment, their medical care, or their benefits; and sold mindless servitude and the flag pins so that patriotism itself would be mocked and discarded, ignored or unrecognized, silenced and drowned out by the clamor of bleating ignorance.
None of their efforts change what patriotism is, nor alter the truth that it is the right and privelege--and sacred responsibility--of members of a democracy to be educated (but not fanatically or single-mindedly so), informed (truthfully and through varied opinions), thoughtful (in word and deed), reasonable (in making points and finding evidence), moral (but not parsimonious or full of ourselves), and humble (yet part of our own governing).
The concept is still worthwhile, even if we must wipe of the desecrations of blood and excrement and worse that have foisted its antitheses upon us as if these were patriotism.
I'm wearing my Black Flag pin.. to symbolize my disgust with U.S. politics.
I'll take it off when 90 percent of incumbent congressional democrats are voted out of congress and replaced with actual progressives.
Why stop at Congressional Dems? Why not oust every dirty rotten incumbent?
TERM LIMITS IN CONGRESS!
it would be a chop to the corruption
HARD LABOR FOR CORRUPTION
like that guy who just got special treat on a home loan:
10 Years Hard Labor!
I am a disabled American infantryman. I fought in Vietnam. As a boy scout and later as a soldier I
was taught the history and the symbolism of our flag. I was also taught to respect the flag and the
proper ways to display it. Many years ago I took a coffin blanket, a large wool flag used to drape a
soldier's casket, from some people who were using it as a window covering. None of them knew
where it came from or what it was other then a flag that fit over their window. Recently I took it out and
saw that moths had gotten to it and severly damaged it. I will be turning it over to my American Legion
post for proper ceremonial disposal. In the years since my return from Vn I have seen the flag so
disgraced by jingoists I no longer know what it represents to the people flying it. I live in a small very
rightwing town in New Mexico. Mostly poor folks, go figure. We have 3 flags fling in town. One in front
of the post office, one in front of the police station and one in front of the volunteer fire department.
None of these flags are lit at night nor are they ever taken down. They are left up until they become
shreaded and literally blow away. Recently the post office flag was down to the blue field and a couple
of tattered stripes.
Wow, thanks for sharing.
Part II
When I bring this up with people I am concidered a trouble maker. If I mention that the flag doesn't
go on the back of a motorcycle but on the right side of the front fender or the right front fender of a
car I am told it doesn't matter how you fly the flag, as long as you're in peoples face with it. I've gotten in violent fights over this issue. The biggest flags I've ever seen are flying as advertisments
over car dealerships. The reichwing has stolen our flag and turned it into a symbol of blind jingo.
They've taken our flag. I hope they choke on it.
Daniel W. Scott, Carrizozo, NM
Dogman44 -
Thank you for your thoughtful post. You write eloquently of the same confusion that many of us feel about the flag and its current abuse. The flag once represented, not nationalism nor political affiliation, but a justified pride in our country's accomplishments and people. For many years now, it has been used as a symbol of political submission to the false pride of a nation's arrogance.
For me, true patriotism is the desire, effort and courage to make our country the best it can be. I want the flag to symbolize that again. It will take work that is not for the faint hearted.
Thanks, Dogman, for you service and "Welcome Home".
We should all support taking back the word patriot from the constitution hating Not See Right. But asking a bunch of liberals or Democrats to agree on one way of doing it is an exercise in futility.
Trouble with liberals is that they will run from a fight rather then stand their ground and fight back.
They talk tough but when all is said and done they will run and hide rather then use fists, clubs
and bullets like the reichwing. I am radically left by reichwing standards. That means I fight back.
I agree with liberal thinking. But I think they are risk adverse and lack spines.
Daniel W. Scott, Carrizozo, NM
If the Democratic Party wants to show its patriotism, it should impeach the criminals bush and cheney.
Given the number of flag-wearers who support the deaths of thousands of young Americans sent to an illegal and ill-advised war - while claiming to 'support the troops' but not supporting a new GI Bill, I've had enough.
The same for those putting yellow ribbons on their cars - while supporting politicians who lower medical support for returning troops.
The irony is that when I see either, I see a non-patriot who fails to so much as understand what America is about, and an idiot who thinks they support the troops and brags about their stupidity.
If this is what America stands for...it's time to change it.
Hmm Did I say change?? :-)
When GWB decided shredding the constitution was patriotic, I joined the ACLU.
Perhaps we should wear the flag pin upside down to signal how distressed our nation has become under Bush.
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