This Land is Our Land

This is going to sound unpatriotic, but I've gone off the Fourth of July.

When I was a kid we went to Fourth of July fireworks. When I had kids, I took them to Fourth of July fireworks. I love fireworks. I love John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. Like almost everyone, I like both America the Beautiful and This Land is Your Land (although the latter was written as an angry retort to the former). 

Do you remember that childhood game of capture the flag? It seems to me that our flag has been captured. I’m not sure I recognize what it stands for when I see it flying like a warning in the backs of pickup trucks or stretched across freeway overpasses. Displayed that way it seems to be itching for a fight that is not only stupid and unnecessary, but unwanted. It reminds me of what I used to hear sometimes when I would walk into a redneck diner and glance around and somebody in one of the booths would scowl and say, “What are you looking at.“ When I see the flag in the hands of Proud Boys, all I want to do is run from it.

I’ve lived during one of the longest periods of peace and prosperity in American history. I recognize the protection my country has given me all these years. I am grateful for it. And I am grateful for all those who served in uniform for our country, even if some of the wars we fought, like Vietnam and Iraq, do not in retrospect seem just. So I don’t mean to demean the flag. It is important to me. It is important to all of us. 

But we must remember that it stands for liberty and justice for all. It has no place being waved in support of bigoted, provincial and hateful invective shouted in vulgar displays of pseudo patriotism. It is a dishonor to all who have struggled to defend the citizens of this country to use it that way.