In 1968, activist and provocateur Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing a shirt designed on the American flag to a hearing held by the House (of Representatives) Un-American Activities Committee. Most states had laws banning the use of the flag in clothing or advertising, and a federal flag code offers guidelines and restrictions for respecting the flag.
So I was amazed when my wife and I ducked into a shopping mall looking for shoes and ran into a display of flag-based clothing, including an oversize jumpsuit of the style a mechanic might wear, flag swim trunks and bikinis. Photographs in the local papers showed all kinds of people attired in flaggy regalia for 4th of July.
I just don’t get it. If the flag is to be honored – for instance, burned if it touches the ground – why would we wear it around our private parts to frolic in the pool or float on the river? Why put on a flag jumpsuit, except to wear to a parade or picnic? Do you trot that out for Memorial Day, Labor Day barbecue, or when you go to vote?
Popular T-shirts on sale in Eureka Springs read “Kneel for the cross, Stand for the flag.” The flag compares readily with that equally venerated symbol, the cross. All my life I have seen people sporting small silver crosses around their necks, a humble way to demonstrate that the wearer is a member of a Christian faith. But here again the symbolic representations can get out of hand – shirts emblazoned with blond, blue-eyed beatific Jesus portraits, the aura glowing behind him and the crown of thorns trickling blood on his forehead. A true Christian needn’t wear gaudy images as proof of her faith, just as a true American patriot is not signified by the flag on his underwear.
In high school, as a wannabe hippie anarchist, I stood for the Pledge of Allegiance but kept my mouth shut. I stood, to respect the flag and those who chose to recite it, but I had a note from my mother granting permission for me to remain silent during the daily morning ritual.
Years later, as a high school teacher, I strove to have my students stand and recite the Pledge, which many considered a boring waste of time, not unlike the “moment of silence” during which they preferred to gossip and giggle. I actually taught the Pledge as a language lesson: what does allegiance mean? What is a republic? What does indivisible mean? At least if the kids knew what the Pledge meant, they could choose to declaim it with sincerity or decline.
Our president – who incidentally was born on Flag Day, June 14 – has made a Big Deal out of the protest of football players “taking a knee” during the playing of the National Anthem. The unemployed quarterback who started that practice has stated that he was told by a veteran that kneeling – out of deference to the flag – was a suitable measure of protest, unlike remaining seated when everyone else in the stadium stood. The protest is not anti-flag; it is to draw attention to the fact the phrase “with liberty and justice for all” is not being actualized.
In my high school days, a common bit of sloganeering was “My country right or wrong.” Many people put the quote in context, as stated by Carl Schurz on the floor of the Senate: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” Slapping a flag decal on your car, swigging a beer in your flag shirt, swimming in your flag bikini – these do nothing to enhance the legacy of American majesty. They do add dollars to the companies that manufacture and sell flag items, Jesus items, sports items.
I understand that a car with Razorback flags indicates a true fan. But a Sunday Christian can wear graven images of Christ, and a sometime patriot can display the flag in myriad objectionable ways. True believers don’t require garish symbols.
Kirk Ashworth
Well said.