WITH A SHORT COURSE ON FLAG ETIQUETTE

A quick post while I’m still resting up for what is sure to be an equally chaotic new year!

During my Christmas travels, I snapped this photo from my truck as I was driving through a residential neighborhood not far from my home. One of the things I hate about living in South Florida, specifically here in Robert E. Lee County, is all the damn Confederate flags displayed everywhere. Not the least of which is the second largest Confederate Flag in the world flapping proudly over I-75 outside of Brandon.

As far as I’m concerned, displaying the Confederate flag is an homage to the deadliest terrorist organization in U.S. History. This is not a rhetorical flourish. Here’s the numbers.

Al Qaeda and ISIL, let alone “Antifa” wouldn’t even register on the graph. When it comes to the deadliest, most traitorous institution in American history, the Confederate States, its so-called “heritage,” is the one with the most blood on its hands. So, flying the Confederate flag is an insult and a bloody affront to any American, especially those who have worn the uniform of the United States Military and put their lives on the line to serve their country. After all, most of that number on the graph represents American soldiers killed by Confederates.

Since 2015, when the Orange Don descended the gaudy elevator surrounded by paid revelers, South Florida’s symbolic landscape has gotten even worse. Now, for every fucking Confederate Flag there’s at lease one flag for the Coiffed Caligula. I can’t say this empirically, but it sure seems that there are a lot more Confederate/Tangerine Tyrant flags flying around my hometown than there are American Flags.

So, the image topping this piece is not just metaphorical. It is the lived experience here in my corner of the Free State. It is emblematic of the MAGA movement. The American Flag flies torn and tattered while the brand logo of the MAGA Messiah is well tended and without blemish. It’s as if MAGA loves its Combover Cult Leader more than they love America!

Yet they will insist, with spittle flying from their pursed lips, that they are the true patriots, the real Americans. One would think that Superpatriots would know basic flag etiquette. After all, a lefty like me knows that a tattered flag is not to be flown. When the flag is damaged, it is to be respectfully and ceremonially retired from service. This traditionally involves burning the flag in a solemn ceremony. This can be done at home, but organizations like the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars also have services for this reverent ritual.

Symbols and rituals are important. It is through such intangible representations that human beings create shared meaning. Arguably, no representation has been subject to more meticulous and intentional symbolic construction than the American Flag. It is one of the world’s most potent symbols. It once stood for certain ideals that challenged every nation on Earth, including our own, to become more free, more dignified. It was a beacon welcoming all who strive to maximize human potential to come and join us and become not just part of a great nation, but a great movement in the chronical of humanity’s drive toward knowledge and freedom.

This symbol has been bastardized and ultimately cast aside by the Authoritarians and the paranoids in our midst. Its aspirations have been abandoned for the trappings of a Cult of Resentment. Its symbol is the tattered ruins of an exalted idea sagging over the logo of a bloated narcissist.

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If ever we need a reminder of the aspirations our nation represents to the world, and our struggles to live up to these aspirations it is now. My novel, Stone is not Forever, an epic immigration tale that will remind you of where we all came from and the hopes and dreams of our ancestors who built this nation, often at great cost to themselves. And yet, in the end, they embraced becoming Americans.