The Grandiose Old Flag*

Yesterday we celebrated Independence Day in the United States, commemorating the day in 1776 the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was proclaimed. It's the traditional high point of summer in this country, a day for picnics and fireworks, patriotic celebrations, parades, and the display of the national flag - often called the "Stars and Stripes," or "Old Glory," or "The Grand Old Flag."

For the last year or two, though, I haven't been sure I wanted to proudly fly the Stars and Stripes on the Fourth any more. This wasn't because I lack patriotic enthusiasm or no longer love my country, but because the flag has been hijacked by those who dishonor its meaning. It's no longer the Grand Old Flag - for too many, it's the Grandiose Old Flag.

Grandiose is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as (1) characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration; (2) impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeur.

Consider the showboating poseur who roars up and down the highways with an enormous flag (or two) flying from his pickup truck ... often accompanied by a Confederate battle flag or a gigantic blue flag screaming Der Furor's praises. What kind of patriot is this?

If you use a gigantic American flag as a finger to raise to other citizens as proof of your "patriotism," you're no patriot. If you wave a Confederate flag, you're no patriot. If you fly a flag honoring a disgraced former president who represents the ugliest undercurrents in our society, you're no patriot.

So that's why the flag I flew at my house this Fourth of July measured twelve by sixteen inches, and flew from a dowel planted in my garden. I don't need to ostentatiously wrap myself in a flag, or fly a flag the size of Matt Gaetz's ego, to show that I love my country.

I fly the Grand Old Flag ... not the grandiose old flag. I believe in the America honored by Senator Carl Schurz in 1871, when he said in a speech to the Senate, 

"My country, right or wrong ... if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."

Have a good day, and be a real American. Keep your country right ... not right as in "aggressively and defiantly conservative," but right as in moral, honest, and true to its best ideals.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* I've been thinking about this topic for a long time, and was finally spurred to write the post by this NY Times article by Sarah Maslin Nir: A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite.