Wearing the flag


In the aftermath of  the World Trace Center bombing,  the American flag is everywhere. On cars, hanging in windows, everwhere. Not in my memory has America displayed the flag with such intensity. Not during the gulf war, not during the Iran hostage crises, never. Living in Manhattan, this effect has been especially intense, and especially surreal . New York City. Land of the hip, the cynical, a place where people where black only until they can find something darker to wear. This week, a city awash in flags.

It took me two days to locate a flag pin. The American flag, in all its forms, is mighty hard to purchase in the New York Area just now. Nothing terribly
fancy. Just the cannonical pin, sized to be worn on a lapel, or a shirt. You've seen them thousands of times on politicians, on certain businesmen, and other people who wish to invoke the flag's symbolism.

Actually putting it on felt strange. I knew, somehow, emotionally, it was the right thing to do. And yet, it felt strange. I'm pretty sure I know why it feels strange. Basically, it's because, for decades, for my adult life, wearing the flag, showing the flag, has carried connotations I'm not entrirely comfortable to embrace. The notion that one was endorsing a certain, "my country,right or wrong." arttitude, a certain knee jerk, unthinking position.

Well, tough..That's not why I'm wearing it. I'm wearing it to show solidarity with all of the people in our country who have been hurt. I'm wearing it to make clear to those who confuse freedom with weakness, that, in times of need, we can, and will stand as one. Perhaps, as a small positive side effect, we will reclaim our flag to stand for a broader, more inclusive embrace of America's ideals.

And, as we go forward, over the next weeks, I will not be surprised if there comes a moment when I feel compelled to add another icon, another marker, one that says "I protest this policy" or "I'm against this idea." For I've no doubt there will be points of contention between Americans as we try to grapple with the  starkly bad, complex choices ahead of us. I'll gladly do this. Perhaps I will cause some people some confusion, some cognitive dissonance. To which, I will say, "The very freedoms I am suporting with this flag give me the liberty, to dissent, to protest."