This Flag is My Flag, Too!

...what's up with the MAGA right's subversion of our national symbol?

Every day, I drive past homes displaying the American flag. Nothing wrong with that, I’ve displayed that flag on occasion myself. After all, I was born in the USA — I’m an American, I have every right to fly the Stars and Stripes.

So why is it that when I attached two American flags to my Vote Blue sign before the last election did some of my American flag waving neighbors complain bitterly to the manager of our trailer park? I can understand that they didn’t agree with my message: “If you value: Social Security, Medicare, Women’s Rights, Democracy, VOTE BLUE” because many of my blue-haired fellow old folx are not just Republicans, but MAGA supporters.

However, the lease we all signed specifically says we are allowed to post political signs in our yards for a very clearly stated number of weeks before and days after an election, so they hadn’t a leg to stand on. Nevertheless, they were angry because I had the audacity to display their American (gasp!) flag alongside these apparently communist sentiments. They requested the manager to make me take down my sign because they felt it desecrated their beloved MAGA-right symbol.

Thing is, we are all about the same age and grew up when a lot of families displayed the flag at their homes only on special patriotic days such as Flag Day and the Fourth of July. The rest of the year, only schools, government offices and military bases displayed the flag every day of the year.

And even those places didn’t leave the flag up 24/7/365. I remember participating in the daily flag raising or lowering when it was my class’s turn for this honor. We did not allow the flag to touch the ground. We learned to fold it in the correct way to store until the next morning. And when the current flag became even a little bit shabby or faded, it was replaced.

Nobody left a flag up day in and day out until it became a shredded rag like the ones I’ve seen displayed in the same yards as “Let’s Go Brandon” signs. We treated the flag with respect because we were taught that it represented “liberty and justice for all”.

How long has it been since it represented that for you? I’m curious.