[Leica] Flag project...Labor day musing...Utterly off topic

[Jim at hemenway.com (Jim Hemenway)]

Michael:

Because it's meant to be used for a sign of ongoing/current distress, 
not for a political statement... if you have been flying the flag "union 
down", then are you being any different than someone crying "fire" in a 
theatre?

I empathize with your distress over the state of affairs in America, but 
submit that there must be a better way of showing it.

I've been reading a lot of history lately and have been reminded that 
there has always been distress over the state of affairs in America.

Jim, "still your friend" Hemenway

P.S. Why not join us on the Forum?


Michael Eric Berube wrote:
> On 9/4/05, B. D. Colen <bdcolen@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>>> More to the point - If we live in America, and are Americans, why do 
>>> we have
>>> to fly flags or plaster flag stickers on our cars to tell people that 
>>> we're
>>> Americans? The flag has, unfortunately, become a political symbol.
>>
>>  
>>
> My friend, BD,
> Our US Flags have always been political symbols. (Since the days of 
> "Don't Tread On Me".) That is their nature and that is their purpose. 
> Political rogues of both wings of our one Corporate Incumbent Party here 
> in these United States have always wrapped themselves in the flag in 
> lieu of actually taking a stand that would get them in trouble with 
> those who hold their strings. The problem we face today is defining just 
> WHAT political viewpoint that our flag stands for in such a supposedly 
> polarized nation of Republicrat 'red states' and Demopublican 'blue 
> states.' Me, I've always seen our flag as the embodiment of all of the 
> promise that the Constitution once held for our nation.
> 
> Would that our vast hircine brood of an electorate actually treat our 
> flag as political symbol with any meaning whatever, we'd likely be in 
> far better stead. As it is, everyone from the Nascar set to the Ivy 
> League liberal intelligentsia are treating our stars and stripes as a 
> mere fashion symbol which says nothing more thoughtful and meaningful 
> than "mega dittos."
> 
> Patriotism has become a flag bumper sticker and a rainbow of magnetic 
> ribbons (all made in China by virtual slave labour and purchased at 
> WalMart) on the rear end of a $40k SUV purchased on credit at 'employee 
> prices.' As it turns out, it seems that it is far easier and trendy to 
> tell all our fellow Sheeple in the lines at the pumps that we are just a 
> part of the flock and just as incapable of fighting for a unique and 
> complex political viewpoint of their own as the rest of the status quo 
> who are shelling out $3.50/gallon and still driving our aforementioned 
> 17MPG SUVs with no other passengers.
> 
> Now having gladly given this nation eight years of my own Liberty as a 
> veteran, I still have this nagging tendency to pay attention to standing 
> regulations when it comes to such things and so in accordance with US 
> Code Title 36 Chap 10 ?176 (A) I have flown my own 'fashion symbol' 
> "union down" for quite a number of years. I've been hoping that someone 
> may have the audacity to ask why it is that I'm doing so, so that I may 
> induce them to actually read their Constitution and to see just how far 
> from its tenets that we've allowed ourselves to stray in the name of 
> some false sense of security.
> 
> Of course, the incumbency game is so well controlled now by our one 
> political party that I'm not really all that hopeful that it would do us 
> much good at all even if the media muddled masses all suddenly became 
> aware that we once had a Constitution that protected us from usurpations 
> of tyranny by guaranteeing the Individual Liberty we were granted by 
> Nature and holding government in check, (we could maybe sneak this 
> revelation into episodes of "Survivor" or "American Idol"?)
> But you've got to start somewhere.
>