“I bet I can make you say blue.”
A pause, a child tries to change the subject for a few minutes, talking about the cornbread that was served in today’s lunch and the great invention, the spork. “What are the three colors of the American flag?” the young boy asks inquisitively. “Red, white, and blue” replies the unaware third grader. “I told you I could make you say blue,” I respond.
That is the way that Old Glory was instilled into our minds growing up. We remember July 4 and the tune “It’s A Grand Old Flag.” We recall civics class, social science and high school government. They all taught us what the American flag represents, as a goal, not as a reality. Since September 11, we cannot escape Americans manipulating the flag’s goal.
One need not emphasize the horror of the attacks and the repercussions for the families. No emphasis can verbalize the loss that such a public tragedy entails. The pain, we all feel, all human beings. Yet, as with each obstacle in life, it is what we do after the pain slowly subsides that history will write about. As history grabs it pen, it chooses the one of disgust this time.
If one turns on the television, to watch a sporting event, so that entertainment can shortly overshadow the grief, they are bombarded with American flags, “God Bless America,” and heartfelt commercial tributes from stations and corporations. It is this that history will view as disgusting. Major League Baseball has decided to put the American flag on the back of each jersey as well on the helmets and hats. The National Football League has done the same on their helmets. These “tributes” are empty and in fact, counterproductive. The NFL and MLB already play under the auspices of American law. They work within the confines, except Montreal and Toronto, of American economic principles. The World Champions are named as such because of America’s ego as well as our ability to finance such sports. When the champions visit the White House, they signify that these sports are part of American culture. On September 10, these teams were no less American than on September 12. The problem is that such coerced forms of nationalism have spilled into the streets of America.
To avoid watching these narcissistic acts of nationalism, one may decide to take a drive, another purely American act. Yet, the red, white, and blue do not escape you. Besides the various towns in the Valley “proudly flying” the flag, lining the streets so that Norman Rockwell’s spirit rests well, it is the makeshift “shrines” to America through the flag that history is disgusted by. A Jeep using the flag as cover for its back seat passengers; a car duct taping the flag to its hood; small flags whistling in the wind attached to everyone’s antenna. Where were these flags on September 10? Where were these “patriots” when President Bush (George I) draped himself in the flag to implore the American people to back the Gulf Massacre, for his oil rights? The flag seems to come out now out of convenience and this is something that shames us all.
Of course the flag symbolizes something different for each of us. But something has to be normative. In today’s modern world, we cannot always be post-modern. The flag has evolved, as we all learned as children, from numerous stars to its present fifty. But the message has remained constant: liberty. That liberty is being co-opted by NBC and ABC as they impose the flag on their corner emblem. It is being co-opted by the media and corporations pledging their support, yet backing their pledge with religion – certainly against liberty as we all recall the separation of church and state. It is being co-opted by the 80 plus percent of Americans who support George II and his “resolve” to attack Afghanistan, and beyond. The flag doesn’t symbolize war. It symbolizes liberty.
We live in a country where one has the freedom to travel, freedom of religion, right to free speech and the right to privacy. But all those freedoms come with risks, not costs, but risks. When I travel to California, as I did one week before these attacks, I know that I may encounter injury or death on that trip, but the flag symbolizes my right to do so. When I watch the U.S. Congress “spontaneously” sing “God Bless America” I am reminded that my freedom of religion is dwindling. When I read that radio stations are banning songs that executives deem “objectionable” I am reminded that America is not willing to take risks. It is only a matter of time before a dark skinned American is stopped and searched and charged with possession of a joint because the law enforcement official, well, knows he/she can. Those liberties are fading and the 80 plus percent should use the flags to back that cause.
What makes America so unique is not that we “united” after the tragic events of September 11: any country would do the same if put in our position, and has. America is unique because the very same people who argue for revenge as they wipe tears from their faces waving the flag have those emotions and have those rights because of liberty. The imminent curtailing of civil liberties will haunt the very same people who weep for the victims. History is disgusted at the hate of the attackers as well as the manipulation of those that hide behind the red, white and blue. As I leave the house today, I understand the risk and glance up to my flag blowing in the wind as it has for several years now, and thank it for the liberty it gives me. I hope that liberty lasts.
