Flag

Dear Friends,

I am still on my Fourth of July holiday.  We have a flag and a flagpole at our cabin, and from time to time we raise the flag with a lot of mixed feelings.

In officer candidate school in the Navy, I always enjoyed raising the flag.  One day the wind was very strong, but we were required to raise the large flag.  At one point all five of us putting the flag up were pulled off the ground by the flag sailing in the wind.  What a thrill although not as ceremonious as it was suppose to be.

In fact, I have always liked the flag.  Unfortunately, it has been stolen as a symbol of the right wing pseudo patriots. 

My father was a navigator/bombardier in the Army Air Corps (the Air Force before it became its own branch of the military) in WWII and flew many missions over Europe.  He lost most of his squadron and never talked about his military experience.  He won the Distinguished Flying Cross.  He was a patriot, a life long Republican (although I do not think he would like them much today, but probably couldn't vote for a Democrat either).  But he never flew the flag, and he never wore a flag lapel pin.  I guess his actions demonstrated that he was a patriot. 

I too was in the military during a time of war.  I was a navigator on an ammunition ship rearming the ships off of Vietnam.   Not as dangerous as what my father did, but in a combat zone nonetheless.

Right after 9/11 we flew a flag at our home for awhile until President Bush decided he would invade Iraq.  Then it was replaced with a "NO WAR IN IRAQ" sign.  A neighbor had both a flag and a "NO WAR IN IRAQ".  That was the best combination.

My wife and I went to Washington DC to attend a prayer service for peace at the National Cathedral followed by a candlelight march to the White House and a big march the next day from the Jefferson Memorial to the Pentagon all to protest the Iraq war.  The flag wavers were out in force as a counter protest.  Some of those protesters were war veterans and some were the appropriate age to serve in the military but were not.  I was wearing my Veterans for Peace hat and was repeated called a coward and unpatriotic by the flag wavers. 

It is hard for me not to associate the flag with those that have stolen it as a symbol of right wing pseudo patriotism.

You probably remember the big uproar because candidate Obama did not always wear a flag lapel pin.  For some people, it was more proof that he probably wasn't really an American and certainly was not patriotic enough to be President.  Apparently the true patriots are people like George W. Bush who was able to avoid really serving in the military by getting into a unit because he came from a rich and powerful family and people like Dick Cheney who had five deferments, because he had other priorities at the time. 

So today as I look out at the flag waving gracefully in the nice breeze, I am at once reminded of all that is great about the United States and all the flaws that we have as well.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal