About a month ago, the powers that be at my school decided to fly the American flag in front of our school. I felt strange that my first thought was that we were once again being railroaded into something by our headstrong interim head of school. He is the kind of guy who likes to boast about how he pulled himself up from his boot straps. Does that make him a Republican? Maybe, maybe not, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't.
So the flag made me think that this was clearly a partisan statement. And that made me angry. But was it a partisan statement? Don't we live in the United States? Shouldn't we fly the flag?
I know that the flag means different things to different people. For some people, it represents supporting Bush. For some people, it represents the genocide of Native Americans, slavery, hundreds of years of racism, and generally not living up to the ideals that we say our country is founded on. For some people, it means taking pride in our country's ideals. For some people, it is merely our flag.
My most recent experience with the flag is seeing my grandfather's coffin draped in it and then later in the day watching a soldier who was fighting back tears hand it to my grandmother immediately after listening to an incredibly heartbreaking version of Taps played by another soldier. I assume that song always is heartbreaking but I had never really heard it at a funeral other than on TV and in the movies.
My grandfather was proud of this country. He knew it wasn't perfect but he loved it nonetheless. It is sad to me that we are at a point in this country's history that the mere display of the flag brings up such negative emotions for so many people. Five years ago, this wouldn't have been the case.
For more on this topic, check this post from Unwellness. She was very upset by the whole thing at first and has some interesting things to say about it. However, I'm still upset that she didn't take my idea that she should buy an American flag just to burn it in front of the school at 3 pm dismissal - just to make a point. That would have been amazing.
4 comments:
To me, symbols/flags and such should be self defined. America is so diverse in meaning that we all find stuff to hate, value and cling to. So I have always dealt with the flag by owning it for me and having it represent an America I wish/want/daydream it to be. And with this concept I love the flag. Those that know me and my old bachelor dorm 38 St. Marks, know we flew a HUGE american flag in our living room. We originally hung it for some past winter olympiad and just let it stay. I loved how it was fully loaded with meaning and a blank slate at the same time. It also had a button, that originaly may have been pinned ironicly, but I came to really internalize: Dont Move, Improve. To me that sums up the flag issue. So bleeding hearts at some unnamed private school in the mid atlantic region look at that flag and remember abolishinists, and underground railroad stops, Chuck Berry and the Green Mount Boys Ira & Etan Allen, and Bill Monroe and Louise Armstrong, John Steinbeck and the Marshall Plan......It helps me anyway.....
Well put, Chris. I like your way of looking at the flag, even though I don't share the same feelings. I have always cringed at the idea of embracing a flag as a symbol of anything to do with myself.
For some of the reasons Dan got into, and others (mainly not wanting to be identified with the unthinking jingoism of so many Americans), I don't feel comfortable around the U.S. flag, and I don't think I'd ever buy one or display one. I intend to stay in America, for the foreseeable future anyway, but even if I did move to any other country I'm sure I would not become a flag-waving citizen there either.
As a kid I had a miniature flag of Ireland that I kept in my bedroom and had a sentimental attachment to, but that was probably a case of latching on to something that you feel makes you special or different among your peers, a tendency that I think shows up in a lot of Irish-Americans (considering how many have misguidedly given money to the IRA over the years, for one thing), and of course among Americans of a lot of other ethnicities too (e.g., there is a Lebanese flag currently displayed in the window of an apartment across the street from mine).
If a school is committed to teaching kids the good and bad facts of their country's history instead of just a sanitized recounting that makes the country seem ever-heroic and righteous, then I'd say it has earned the right to fly the flag. However, I have never heard of a school that does that. As a public school kid, I sure as hell got the sanitized version. Would you say the kids at your school get a more balanced perspective on American history, Dan?
in my class, they sure as hell do.
i like the flag in bikini form
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