Personal Aside: On the US Flag and Current Events

By Dave Wieneke | in About this blog, Highlights | 2 Jul 2009 | 3 Comments

The year’s most patriotic weekend is upon us.  And if you’re like me the prospect of a long weekend is incredibly welcome. So, for your consideration, here’s a more personal post about an American symbol and what we might make of it.

This winter I bought a US Flag, and after many years in my residence, started flying it. Like a lot of people, I thought of this as an outwardly symbolic act. Liberal members of my family asked why I’d do this, and only half accepted that it was a way people express civic satisfaction. They asked how often I’d fly it, as if one might need a limit, and pointed out that Europeans wouldn’t use flags that way at all.

After 9-11, there was a feeling of increased unity both at my work, which was then in state government, and in my city, as people thought beyond individual interests. Having just finished a long partisan election, I perhaps hoped some little symbolism would help us close ranks. That might be why putting up a flag seemed right, back in December.

But as I started to fly the flag, I found I had a few things a bit wrong.
The symbolism of flag-flying turned out, for me, to be more personal. It’s a way of framing my day as about something bigger than just my family or neighborhood. As I put it up, I think of people I know whose goals reach beyond just themselves. I think of friends on active duty, one or two who are diplomats, teachers, journalists, parents….in those few seconds, my day is bracketed with a hope that exceeds just getting out the door quickly for a quick commute. I think my kids get this too.

The flag helps me define my world as being part of a nation, as good or flawed as its people. To make it a symbol for cultural difference strips it of an important power. The married gay couple down the street, who’ve adopted three kids from Iowa, and my neighbor from Brazil, who constantly raises the bar though his industry and generosity, are unquestionably virtuous and American. They are as welcome as any hero, and indeed, have survived more heroic days than most. I’m not sure they see me flying the flag as bringing us any closer together, but it does for me. I get this: too often those who marginalize others first wrap themselves in the flag, claiming it as a symbol of what they believe to be the singularly righteous side of a cause.

Just as prayer may do more to put change in our hearts than the outer world, just as rosary beads are an inner tool for peace, the flag may be the way scattered Americans connect their lives back to civic good. Where people of good intent disagree, it may a way back to unify, where many can respond as one.

Conservatives are stinging from a hard electoral defeat. They need the flag to frame their redemption and continued value. Liberals can use it too, so as not to be blinded, or isolated, by new-found political power.

Things like the flag, Scouting, and military service offer an infrastructure for commonality. They put differences in perspective, and focus on values such as freedom and shared responsibility. They require actual sacrifice. The flag, as a symbol, invokes that commonality and only requires attentiveness. May both be ubiquitous this weekend.