Who Do America's Symbols Belong To
The symbols we use as Americans, the flag, the eagle, the national anthem - those things belong to us all. The Star Spangled Banner isn't the Army fight song. I don't get to demand that anyone sing We Shall Overcome outside the governor's mansion and no one in Alabama can compel me to stand up when Dixie is played - which is something they do down there. We are a free nation. If someone doesn't like the amount of reverence I pay to the symbols they treasure thats fine, don't get me a birthday present this year, just don't insist you're more of an American or that I don't value my countrymen.
I value people more than symbols. People associated with flag waving are often those whose beliefs are antithetical to my own, right wing Americans or loyalists in Northern Ireland for example, but my god, can we not establish some common humanity? Can't we both claim the tendency that Americans have to help each other after disasters? Can we acknowledge that our multi-cultural military represents all of America, after all, it's made up mostly of the working class who look to it for economic reasons as much as ill-defined patriotism. Can we all see that to protest is American and that some of our finest have come from that tradition?
A Tale of Two Wings: The Parable of the Bipartisan Avian
Liberals, take back our most enduring symbol.
Liberal Patriotism Is About More Than Flag-Waving
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