What do you think when you see this?

[Pacifist Patriot]

The far right wrapping themselves in this symbol has virtually destroyed it for me.

I was raised on Army bases and loved it when my dad pulled over to salute the lowering of the flag while Taps was played at the end of the day. The youth I was, considered it an honorable symbol that made me feel safe. When I was older I'd smile whenever I saw one on a mailbox or flying from a house in a civilian neighborhood. I don't recall too many applied to automobiles before 9/11 but if I'd seen one I'd have probably assumed the car's owner was retired military or cared personally about someone who had served or was serving.

The past six years have soured me on the symbol. As the ones afixed to car antennas and hung backwards out of apartment windows after 9/11 began to fade in the sun and shred in the wind, I regarded them as depressing metaphors of the destruction of the Constitution and the land the flag is meant to represent.

The far right usurpation of "patriotism" in the political campaigns of 2000, 2002 and 2004 further eroded my tender feelings towards our national emblem. The guy with the flag plastered all over the back of his car is now assumed to be a Republican rather than an American. When did I allow that to happen? I have found myself reluctant to display my flag because I don't want to be confused with someone who supports the Bush administration.

I abhor concretization of symbols and this has happened to the American flag. When people care more about whether a flag is burned than a wildlife preserve, I've got a problem with that. When people would rather see flags standing proudly in the sun than all people standing proudly with their heads held high, I've got a problem with that. When people wear the flag as a shirt on their back rather than make sure a naked man has any shirt to wear, I've got a problem with that.

Dammit. I want our flag back and I want it to symbolize a responsible and caring nation.

[treestar]

1. I still think of America

Immediately, but will eventually start thinking about the RW bastards trying to use it to refer to The Republican Party Only as if it were America Entire.

[H2O Man]

2. The flag ....

I think of people like my grandfather, who fought in WW2. I think of Abbie Hoffman's shirts. I think of small town America, with the flag flying in the village square on a sunny day.

[Pacifist Patriot]

24. *sigh* That's what I want to think of. I'll try harder.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. I think of this...

[MADem]

7. Me too...either that, or this....

[IntravenousDemilo]

8. Apparently you're seeing the same thing I do,

except I see the Mac version.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. ROTFLMAO!!

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. Lovely. Right click and then select "show picture" please.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. I tried that, but it didn't work

it's showing up now though. :)

I put up a flag right after 911... but within 6 months I started realizing what B*shCo was doing, and I took it down.

bastards!

[Pacifist Patriot]

23. Oh I did too.

I'm certainly not immune to the fervor that gripped the nation immediately post-9/11.

[noamnety]

4. It was destroyed for me in elementary school

Being raised as a nonchristian, having to say the pledge and declare my faith in God as part of it, and being singled out in front of the class for not saying the Under God part ruined the whole flag thing for me in a way that ran way deeper than any republican nowadays could have done.

[Pacifist Patriot]

14. *shudder* That's sad!

[Master Mahon]

16. You think you had it bad?

I went to catholic schools for 16 years!! :+

Think of all the Psychiatrist bills you missed out on!

[CrispyQ]

5. I think it's telling how many people treat our flag with disrespect,

flying flags that are torn, dirty or just worn out. I think they hold our democracy with a similar level of respect.

It's all about appearances, these days & nothing of substance.


This flag represents our country's values better than the stars & stripes.

[IntravenousDemilo]

6. I see a small, blue box containing a question mark,

so I don't know what I'm supposed to think.

[maveric]

10. The pic is slow loading for me too.

Three minutes ans still the little box with "?".

[IntravenousDemilo]

19. I assume it's non-loading, not slow-loading.

And if it's slow-loading, well, I don't have all fucking day, so it might as well be non-loading.

[lonestarnot]

9. A small box with a red x - Gitmoed!

(X X)
>
O x's in yer eyes means dead I learned that from the pokeman.

[Beaverhausen]

12. nevermind

I see it now

[Pacifist Patriot]

15. Sorry folks. I don't know what to do. The image is there for me.

[gimama]

17. I keep seeing the Black GandMother,left behind in NOLA

wrapped in OUR Flag.
Also, I did the Gulf Veterans' march,from Mobile to NOLA; WE saw faded,shredded, American Flags, still attached to HOMES & porches blown aWay. They were sadly,totally appropriate. (www.bringthemhomenow.org)

[NI4NI]

18. I still know what the true symbolism of our flag means

regardless of how bad right wing nuts and phony patriots have twisted and tarnished it and hijacking the flag as they've hijacked relegion. What I have thought about is what the world thinks when they see the American flag? Do they see it the same way that I used to see the hammer & cyckle, the red rising sun, or the swastika?

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. I think that's a large part of why it makes me squirm now.

[lvx35]

20. Its just a symbol for us.

Unlike the constitution, which actually defines our nation, the flag symbol doesn't stimulate any of that dangerous "thought" stuff, so its safe for conservatives.

[tabasco]

25. The country the flag represents has let the people down.

The only industrialized nation with no universal health insurance, and it doesn't look like we're getting it anytime soon.

I am no longer proud to be an American, and I am a combat vet.

It will probably take something like another civil war before we can set this country on the right path.

Sometimes I think it would have been better if we had let the Confederacy seceed. We could have had a decent United States by now if we had not kept the Confederate traitors in our nation.

[Pacifist Patriot]

27. Ouch, this Georgia born girl smarts at that.

[tabasco]

32. I'm sorry!

Please don't take offense. I know there are many fine people living in the South.

I'm just very frustrated at the regressive course this nation has taken.

It seems as though the values and goals of the Confederacy, i.e., to have a ruling class lord over the rest of us, have reached fruition.

I'm sure the good people of the South will be front and center in working to make this country a better place.

:hi:

[Pacifist Patriot]

34. Hey, and look where the last states with positive Bush ratings are.

Idaho, Utah.....not exactly the Confederacy. ;) Cheers!

[SeattleGirl]

26. I understand exactly how you feel. I felt that way for a long time.

I actually felt ashamed and embarrassed at the thought of displaying a flag, because I did not want to be mistaken for a Republican/repuke/neo-con. Same with the National Anthem, and God Bless America, songs I've loved all my life.

But then, I got to the point you're at: "Dammit. I want our flag back and I want it to symbolize a responsible and caring nation." That's what started turning things around for me. I realized that by feeling ashamed and embarrassed, I was HELPING those Republicans/repukes/neo-cons to steal the flag, and to change what it meant. I was allowing them to co-opt that symbol and turn it into something it was never meant to be. I was allowing them to take it away from me. And I realized that regardless of what they do, reclaiming it wasn't up to them letting go of it and the fake, fraudulent meaning they have instilled in it. It was up to ME.

I am not proud of what this country has done under the Bush regime. But I won't let them push their agenda on me any longer. I do feel proud of what the flag is supposed to symbolize, and I'm working toward getting this country back to what it's supposed to be about (even though, of course, it has never lived up to that ideal, but the ideal is something to work toward).

I will not feel ashamed of the flag, or my good feelings when I see it. I will not cringe when I hear the National Anthem or God Bless America. I will celebrate the ideals that those things symbolize. And if someone mistakes me for a Republican/repuke/neo-con because of it, it's about them. It's not about me, because I know where I stand.

Pacifist Patriot, I hope you can find your way back. :patriot:

[leveymg]

28. Very powerful and eloquent. Thank you.

I see a collage of images, some of them make me feel warm, proud and comforted -- as a boy, I remember reading a World War Two memorial marker on a village green in New England on a crisp, fall day. A lot of names for such a small town. Two little flags were placed in the ground on each side of that bronze plaque by the ladies of the local VFW post, who kept fresh flowers planted there year round. Meanwhile, other memories are as cold, flat and grainy as a black-and-white TV image of a screaming Asian girl burned with napalm running down Vietnam Hwy. 1.

Those color images of flag-draped coffins in the cargo hold of a C-17 returning to Dover, DE capture my recent feelings. Appalled -- this is what they've been trying to hide from our sight?

I'm still torn between those feelings, and they're all woven into my American Flag.

[porphyrian]

29. Take it back.

It's your flag, too.

[Robbie Michaels]

31. Exactly

Anyone have a full-screen sized, royalty free image of the flag? If I had one, I'd use it as the background image instead of the picture of La Jolla Shores for my sig banner and blog header.

[spanone]

30. I fly one. I'm proud of America. She'll be back.

I remember when people in the sixties were getting busted for having shirts with the likeness of the flag. Now we can pin it on our asses. Says a lot about our times.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

33. I fly one every day

They won't take my pride from me, even if I am ashamed of some things this country has done.

I have lost (as we probably all have) family members in every war so far. So the red is bought in blood of my kin and I'm keeping it up there until the day (perish the thought) when power is no longer transferred peacefully. Then I'll take it down and go inside and stay there.