From Dark to Bright

On Tuesday night I saw a young boy skateboarding down Broadway waving a huge American flag like it was the most revolutionary symbol on earth. As the votes started tallying in favor of change, the colors and symbols of the American flag, that only moments before stood for conservativism and eliteness felt new, cool and revolutionary.

I was born in the late 1970's, after people wore American flag t-shirts with their bell-bottoms. It's honestly always seemed like a giant oxymoron -- hippies wearing American flag fashion. I understood that the flag was genuinely a part of the fashion and culture of that era, but I never understood it.

I never thought in my lifetime it would actually be cool to wear an American flag. This morning I reflected on what young, liberal activists have worn in my time and realized that there has been a lot of dark colors, a lot of hoods and a lot of safety-pins and ripped edges. It made me wonder -- has there been some sort of subconscious mourning all this time and we did not know it until Tuesday night?

As I came over the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn the other night I saw people running out of their houses into the streets. People who normally may not acknowledge one another giving high fives, howling in unison; "Woohoo! Barack Obama! O-BA-MA!" The gentrifiers and the originators, together dancing in the street.

The past few weeks in New York I have talked to more people because of my handmade Obama pin (made by a school teacher in Brooklyn). Complete strangers of all ages, colors, nationalities, aesthetics asking me about my pin, where can they get one just like it? How is going to be if he wins? Are people going to be dancing in the streets? The answer was and is yes! The parents and their kids and their neighbors were dancing in the streets. A new day is here and we are dying to floss it! Here in New York City, where people dress in many different ways I have a feeling we may all want some unifying pieces or colors in the coming months. I want to wear more things that (like my Obama pin) that invites complete strangers want to converse with me. I want to channel this hope into a way of everyday dress!

I awoke looking this morning searching for color in my wardrobe. I want more red, more blue, more purple, and more hot Michelle Obama pink. On the street this afternoon I heard shout outs of "O - BA - MA". I turned around and I saw young kids in dark hoodies walking down my street after school singing "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!" on a rainy fall day that would have otherwise seemed dreary and boring. And they were smiling ear to ear. I wonder if maybe they too wish their hoodies were red, white or blue today.

Karyn Starr of White-Starr

Comments

[1will]

Conservatives have always liked the flag. Liberals are kind of like "Summer Soldiers." They only find their patriotism when things go exactly their way. Hopefully Michelle Obama managed to be proud of her country for a second time on Nov. 4th.

[TakeSake]

This is, as usual, typical of the wrong conclusions that conservatives make about such matters.

"Conservatives have always liked the flag" - what does that really mean? It means they invest and dedicate so much into a symbol - "I pledge allegiance to the flag ..." - that they miss the true meaning it represents; not just the ideal, but the reality, which can and often does go directly against the ideal represented by the flag.

As such, they rally around and wave it and find nothing wrong with the country, when things are done that could never have been approved or appreciated by the founders. Torture. Illegal invasions. Cronyism. It's all waved away as the rantings of "Liberals".

If the flag is to represent the ideal that is America, then one shouldn't be so quick to wave it when you push the country it stands for against those very ideals.

For the last 8 years conservatives have debased the ideals on which this country was founded. They've traded good American gold for Chinese brass, and pure American waters for Arabian oil. They bought one-use toys and lined their pockets using the national credit card, and forwarded the bill to our children and beyond.

The heavy chains forged over the last 8 years are being cast aside, one link at a time; and for each one the flag rises higher, and prouder, now that we can try to achieve that more perfect union, again.

[OnTheCusp]

Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner!