May 16, 2008
Flap
Returning to college after the Great Middle War, we WWII veterans were required along with everybody else to take old Senator McCarthy’s loyalty oath. We refused, en masse. If we hadn’t already demonstrated our loyalty and patriotism, signing a piece of paper wouldn’t prove anything. It created quite a stir, but the powers finally gave in and gave up.
Loyalty-oath takers and other so-called patriotic types are currently acting equally silly about the flag. I got indoctrinated on flags as a Cub Scout, and it mostly stuck, largely, I suspect because nobody then seemed much to make an idol of them. I continue to stand, take off my hat, and hold my hand over my heart for the playing of our largely unsingable national anthem. I notice fewer do so nowadays. I also know pretty much what are the rules for the public display of the flag. It’s okay. We live in a culture generally illiterate about symbols and other metaphors, anyway. Myth and falsehood continue to be synonyms, even in the churches. Such doings and their commensurate bedfellow biblical inerrancy inevitably lead to idolatrous confusion and thus to our loss.
The current flap over the lapel flag-pin suggests that the problem seems never to go away. Ironically, too many of those who wear them, probably even on their jammies, make the biggest fuss over patriotism, then all the while ignore the Constitution, lie a lot, spy on their neighbors, and torture their enemies.
On the other hand, I don’t use flag-adorned postage stamps, but I do try to tell the truth most of the time and always salute on reflex. As for my lapels, barren they be.
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