The history of Stars and Stripes is pretty well known, and, unlike that of the Star-Spangled Banner (see my previous entry), it hardly needs retelling. Besides, what is probably much less known, the touching story of Betsy Ross and her daughters making with their own hands the first American Flag and personally handing it over to George Washington is certainly an apocryphal legend. As a matter of principle, I wholeheartedly welcome historical legends and monumental history as such, but this is already another matter. Meantime, I strongly recommend to the reader unfamiliar with the details of this flag legend to get familiar with them, in a hurry.
I like the American flag very much. With its unusual combination of stars and stripes, it is quite distinctive and dignified, doing justice to one of the greatest nations on earth and contributing, in no small part, to the world’s admiration from afar of what this nation has historically represented.
Yes, I like the American flag. It undoubtedly ranks among a handful of the most beautiful flags in the world, and even now, after almost thirty years of seeing the underside of American democracy from the inside, that is being here, I like it no less now than before. That also goes for the American National Anthem which I’ve never ceased to admire. Just as I said it about the American National Anthem in my last entry (Anacreon In Heaven), it used to be one of the several reasons why I liked America so much.
Needless to say, I welcome a multitude of American flags carried by different people during public patriotic events, or a multitude of these flags displayed by different homes on national holidays along the same street. Furthermore, I am always sympathetic toward people wearing a flag pin and my lengthy litany of praises for Americans displaying their national flag on various occasions and even without a particular occasion can go on and on, with my sympathetic attitude unabated.
But what I can’t stand, what I find offensive and demeaning, is the manipulative display of a dozen or more such flags by political candidates who use these flags as props, to show off their “patriotic” credentials, and, in the process, turn an essentially noble exercise into a cheap circus.
To be fair, the sickening practice of “decorative” display of multiple flags, such as described in this entry, is by no means limited to America. Most countries and organizations make a habit of it. Perhaps I should have written a more general entry, without singling out a particular country, but this entry was written under the direct influence of such flag abuse during the 2008 American Presidential Campaign, by candidates of both parties, when I was watching television a lot, and could neither contain my disapproval, nor “generalize” for the sake of “objectivity.”
The American flag represents to me the purity and integrity of America’s soul. The practice which I’ve just described, somehow brings to mind JK Rowling’s horcruxes, that is, fragments of a human soul deliberately split into a number of pieces, each such splitting thinning out the original whole soul, and thus reducing it to a pitiful subhuman subsistence. (My view on this subject may seem overly harsh to the reader, and surely it is subjective, but wouldn’t those same people who have been advocating declaring any instance of improper use of the American flag a crime of flag desecration, agree that the practice of diluting the pristine quality of the American flag into quantity for quantity's sake should amount to no less than flag desecration. After all, Americans pledge allegiance to the Flag, not to a dozen flags!)
…I admire the American Flag, and all the more I resent its use as a gimmick.
I like the American flag very much. With its unusual combination of stars and stripes, it is quite distinctive and dignified, doing justice to one of the greatest nations on earth and contributing, in no small part, to the world’s admiration from afar of what this nation has historically represented.
Yes, I like the American flag. It undoubtedly ranks among a handful of the most beautiful flags in the world, and even now, after almost thirty years of seeing the underside of American democracy from the inside, that is being here, I like it no less now than before. That also goes for the American National Anthem which I’ve never ceased to admire. Just as I said it about the American National Anthem in my last entry (Anacreon In Heaven), it used to be one of the several reasons why I liked America so much.
Needless to say, I welcome a multitude of American flags carried by different people during public patriotic events, or a multitude of these flags displayed by different homes on national holidays along the same street. Furthermore, I am always sympathetic toward people wearing a flag pin and my lengthy litany of praises for Americans displaying their national flag on various occasions and even without a particular occasion can go on and on, with my sympathetic attitude unabated.
But what I can’t stand, what I find offensive and demeaning, is the manipulative display of a dozen or more such flags by political candidates who use these flags as props, to show off their “patriotic” credentials, and, in the process, turn an essentially noble exercise into a cheap circus.
To be fair, the sickening practice of “decorative” display of multiple flags, such as described in this entry, is by no means limited to America. Most countries and organizations make a habit of it. Perhaps I should have written a more general entry, without singling out a particular country, but this entry was written under the direct influence of such flag abuse during the 2008 American Presidential Campaign, by candidates of both parties, when I was watching television a lot, and could neither contain my disapproval, nor “generalize” for the sake of “objectivity.”
The American flag represents to me the purity and integrity of America’s soul. The practice which I’ve just described, somehow brings to mind JK Rowling’s horcruxes, that is, fragments of a human soul deliberately split into a number of pieces, each such splitting thinning out the original whole soul, and thus reducing it to a pitiful subhuman subsistence. (My view on this subject may seem overly harsh to the reader, and surely it is subjective, but wouldn’t those same people who have been advocating declaring any instance of improper use of the American flag a crime of flag desecration, agree that the practice of diluting the pristine quality of the American flag into quantity for quantity's sake should amount to no less than flag desecration. After all, Americans pledge allegiance to the Flag, not to a dozen flags!)
…I admire the American Flag, and all the more I resent its use as a gimmick.
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