Posted on 07/24/2020 8:14:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
If future generations are to look upon Old Glory and see it as a symbol of hope, freedom, and justice, we must always protect and defend what we know to be true about it.
These three words, which have also been painted on statues of people deemed problematic for their historical shortcomings, seem to carry the same weight the Stars and Stripes once did. Similarly, many professional athletes are now permitted to kneel or even remain in the locker room during the national anthem or to print social justice slogans on their jerseys. Traditional expressions of patriotism have become taboo in the face of a movement that aims toward revolution.
What are Americans to make of this new orthodoxy? After all, for many of us, symbols such as the flag are inextricably linked to the sacrifices our forefathers made in some of our nation’s most perilous moments. For that reason, we proudly fly a flag in front of our home.
Two of my great-grandfathers served in the Navy during World War II. One spent the war on an oil tanker refueling battleships and destroyers operating in both the European and Pacific theaters. With few armaments for self-defense, his ship would have been no match for surprise kamikaze attacks and lurking enemy submarines.
The other, a cook on the USS Spadefish, witnessed some action on one of the most successful submarines of the war as it sank more than 88,000 tons of Japanese shipping during five patrols. His ship’s flag hangs proudly in my grandmother’s living room and will eventually be passed down with the stipulation that it remains within the family.
Serving as a sergeant in an Army artillery unit, a third great-grandfather saw combat in the Philippines, where he earned the Distinguished Service Medal. Tragically, after contracting malaria during Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s island-hopping campaign, my great-grandfather’s weakened immune system made him vulnerable to ailments, and he died prematurely when he returned home after the war.
Drafted into the Army in 1965, my grandfather served a tour of duty in Vietnam, during which he received multiple decorations for valor that he preferred to keep private in the years after. Only 20 years earlier, his father fought in the same part of the world to defeat Japan.
My grandfather told me the only person other than his mother to tell him “welcome home” was a man selling T-shirts outside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1994. By his account, he saw no glory in war but understood he had a duty to serve his country when called upon and thereby to uphold the family’s good name for future generations. Military service was a commitment to both kin and country. I suspect my great-grandfathers would have agreed wholeheartedly.
The flag calls us to virtues — gratitude, humility, and prudence — that transcend our differences: gratitude for the efforts of our forbears to make America better than when they first inherited it, humility in adjusting to today’s realities while conserving noble traditions, and prudence in thinking of our rights as viable and sustainable only when we first commit ourselves to family, community, and nation. Our national tradition deserves to be passed on to our children so they too might enjoy the blessings of liberty, justice, and equality under the law.
America has a choice to make. Either it will tear itself apart in revolutionary fervor or aspire to the virtues of gratitude, humility, and prudence. The former calls for anger, division, and tribalism. It attempts to inflict pain on others for the sake of a political revolution with no clear end.
The latter requires that we celebrate and learn from history so we can grow into the “more perfect union” that heroes such as Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Susan B. Anthony fought for in the name of abolition and civil rights. They drew from the same well as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, challenging the flawed social order that failed to live up to the truths of the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal.” They did not rebuke those ideas and aspirations but instead sought to fulfill them.
When I look at our flag, I cannot help but feel that it, and all the good it represents, must endure for posterity. If future generations are to look upon Old Glory and see it as a symbol of hope, freedom, and justice, we must always protect and defend what we know to be true about it.
Nice
Two points:
The anthem, which honors the flag, stands for the constitution, which does not stand for racism. It stands for the opposite. Equality for all. Under God. Gods view of humanity.
It simply is not the sole responsibility of the US military to defend the flag. So people need to save that sentiment. Keep it. Our military are not our mercenaries I am a combat veteran. I can list all the people in my family who served. It makes no difference
It is up to every citizen of this country to defend the flag. That includes and especially includes all of those bums in the stands at these sports venues who pledged allegiance to our flag but sat through watching high visibility misinformed sports personalities disrespecting the flag.
Identifying it as a symbol of racism. It is not.
Leave the military out of it.
America is SYSTEMICALLY ANTI-RACIST!
Offhand, I can name a dozen laws and court cases that support that idea!
I haven’t flown my American flag since the “gay marriage” decision.
First, thank you very much for your service. We all truly appreciate it.
Second, I currently live in a home for seniors with Alzheimer’s. I am not yet a senior and I don’t have Alzheimer’s, but my husband placed me here after I got out of the hospital (I actually had a cardiac arrest!), so that I’d have nursing care, etc. I wonder if he’ll ever let me home again; you can FReepmail me if you want details about my miserable situation.
Anyway, back at home I have a beautiful cotton American flag, which I display on appropriate days (every day, sunrise to sunset). But here, all I have is a flag that you can attach to your car window.
I put it on the wall, but the sticky things weren’t strong enough. So I have it displayed hanging off of a table.
One day, a nurse came in, saw my flag and frowned. I said, “What? You don’t like the American flag? You don’t like America? Do you realize how many times American soldiers have saved the world’s ass?”
She answered, “I have no problem with your flag. I like Americans. I just don’t like the person you voted into the White House.”
I said, “Well, a lot of people do like President Trump, including me, and we are going to vote for him to be re-elected next November. You Canadians are just going to have to deal with it.”
LOL! America! We’re here, we’re ... um ... strong and free (definitely not queer, for the most part); get used to it! :)
Oh and as for those pampered rich athletes who stay in the locker room or kneel, well they really don’t realize which side of the bread it’s buttered on. They are just pushing real fans away. Major League sports, thanks to attitudes like this and to Covid-19, is on its way to the dustbin of history.
Colin K-what’s his face can get down on his knee and thank God for that, right? Hope those riches dry right up. Spend it now, on bling, on women, on fancy cars and houses. Blow it all and end up destitute on the street. LOL!
“It stands for the opposite. Equality for all. Under God. Gods view of humanity.”
In 1954 when they added “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, I remember my father telling me that some day someone would use it as a rallying point to remove god from everything that stands for America. He was right.
That’s not what this is.
After 1954 it said, "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I heard that the addition was made so that kids wouldn't think the wording was "one naked individual..."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.