Flag Day
It used to be that Flag Day fell on June 14th every year. Now it seems like it’s Flag Day most all of the time. The Colorado GOP just called for burning all gay pride flags. Justice Alito flies his American flag upside down and An Appeal to Heaven flag rightside up. You can find blue striped American flags, Pride flags and Don’t Tread on Me flags. Every day is flag day in these divided states of America. Upside down, inside out, backwards, sideways, all signifying something.
Just flying Old Glory itself, what used to be a fairly universal act of patriotism, now is more a rightwing ad co-opted by the Republican Party. Jam a couple in the tailgate of a jacked up 4×4 Dodge Ram and run them until they’re nothing but tatters, what better way to announce your love of country? Or run one up the flagpole upside down, let everyone know you think the country has gone to hell in a handbasket. Back in my day, the wild and wooly ‘60’s, we burned flags. Laws were passed by outraged Republicans banning those incendiary expressions of free speech. Now those same folks want to burn Pride flags. At least in Colorado.
Justice Alito claims his wife loves flags, him, not so much. He’s not really certain what his wife’s flags even mean. Probably the only guy in the country who isn’t which only proves, at least to him, how impartial he will be and why he shouldn’t recuse himself on cases related to, oh, say January 6th when those flags were used as battering rams at the Capitol.
When we built the Camano Island Visitor Center, we erected an historic flagpole from the Stanwood American Legion who apparently didn’t want it on their property. Invariably we would have outraged Viet Nam vets demanding that it be properly lighted, even before we could get around to it. Maybe you’d like to help, I’d ask. Not much volunteering other than their negative opinion of what we were trying to do. But I can attest that flags definitely get peoples’ attention, good and bad. Maybe we should just ban all flags and end all this acrimony. And while we’re at it, let’s ban Flag Day too. Run that up the pole and see who salutes….
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