Only fools yield symbols as powerful as that to their enemies. That point is obvious enough that even the NYT is getting it.
At its 1777 inception, the flag’s very design signified unity, the joining of the 13 colonies, said John R. Vile, a professor of political science and a dean at Middle Tennessee State University.Politicizing the American flag is thus a perversion of its original intent, according to Professor Vile, who is also the author of “The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes In U.S. History, Culture and Law.” He added, “We can’t allow that to happen.”
So don't.
4 comments:
That ship has sailed, as far back as the 1960s when the young left sniggered at the flag. I remember it well.
Respectfully, AVI, I don't think we should give in on that point. It's too late for some, maybe, but every day new Americans are being made, and they are new opportunities. And like so much else, we just need to keep insisting.
A fair point, anonymous. (By the way, house rules are that anonymous comments are OK, but you have to sign them with some kind of persistent name at the bottom so we can keep anonymous commenters separate.) Philosopher Hannah Arendt called that quality 'natality,' the right and power of every person in every generation to decide to do something new. The next generation might decide to return to a love of America, perhaps because they will have seen the fight to save it.
Yeah, Grim, that anonymous above was me. Wasn't paying enough attention.
Jefferson, at least once, said that every generation should hold its own constitutional convention and rewrite the whole thing.
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