The past five years under the flag-wrapped Bush administration has served as a long-term Schick Center aversion therapy program for me and our national symbol. I’m having trouble stomaching the sight of the stars and stripes these days; whenever I see it trotted out, I sense bullshit is on the way in some shape or form – another small erosion of a prized civil liberty, another call to shut my fucking pie hole and fall into line, another lie, another rationalization for use of torture, another invasion of an “uncooperative” country half a world away.
I say it’s time we abandon the flag.
I know there’s a legitimate argument to be made that we shouldn’t let the neo-cons get away with besmirching our national emblem, that we should reclaim this country and this symbol, bring it back to represent the core beliefs of the republic. But I fear I can’t undo the emotional and mental associations so stridently and hypocritically evoked by the conservative crowd over the past few years. The stars and stripes have been wrapped around so many authoritarian plutocrats that the stench of their political philosophy has sunk into the very fabric of its being. It’s so crawling with the lice of faux patriotism, hidden agendas and propagandistic coercion that I think it’s time for progressives to abandon it.
God knows, it’s not the flag’s fault. We forget, but it’s only a geometric pattern, after all (although try telling that to the right-wing in this country and you’ll be eviscerated faster than you can mumble “flag-burning amendment”). Just as there was nothing inherently wrong with formerly neutral symbols of past regimes and movements – the hammer and sickle, the swastika, white robes and hoods – there is nothing wrong per se with 50 stars and 13 stripes (although I would suggest that this diverse country would be better served by a more subtle symbol than one making use of simple arithmetic). But the flag’s appropriation and guilt by association with causes inimical to true liberty have put it – for me at least – in a category with other emblems of discredited and shameful acts and philosophies.
But not to worry. I propose a richer, more complex and ultimately more appropriate symbol for this country, one with which we’re already familiar: the Statue of Liberty.
I love the Statue of Liberty, always have and always will. For one thing, it has a human face on it, a reminder that human beings are, after all, the bottom line, that governments are designed to create social contracts that further the dreams and talents of individual citizens for the benefit of all, to provide stability, and to promote order and cooperation between members of society. It also helps that this face is not a militaristic, fearsome warrior, but a compassionate female face that greets the world head-on, with dignity, openness and strength.
I love the fiery torch uplifted, representing passion, warmth and light. I get shivers when I remember that this was a gift from a foreign country, thanking us for the gift to the world of our democratic experiment.
But most of all, I love the inscription. Face it, this country was founded by the losers of the world. If you were sitting pretty, rolling in wealth and power and respect in your home country, you were a fool to cross the Atlantic and start over. Only the desperate, the shut-out, the shunned, the criminal, the adventurous malcontents were willing to make that godawful oceanic voyage. Oh, yeah. And the enslaved. Let’s not forget the enslaved, the ones we shipped from Africa and the ones who were here, awaiting the arrival of Europeans.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
If these words aren’t the epitome of progressive, democratic beliefs, I don’t know what is. Out of misery, we construct hope. Out of the unwanted, we found a nation. Out of the oppressed, we create freedom – true freedom, not the sham kind that’s on the march in civil war-torn Iraq, shoved down the throat at the barrel of a gun. Out of the “refuse” of the world, we build the longest-lived experiment in democracy, because we believe, in our heart of hearts, in the dignity and worth of every human being.
Let the right keep the flag and its weird fetishistic attraction. Me, I want this country to hold a fiery torch high and return to the ideal of being the light of the world.
Next up: Dump the Star-Spangled Banner as the national anthem. It’s too long, too unmelodic, too difficult to sing and now too associated with crappy causes. I propose This Land is Your Land, which gets to the heart of what this country is all about in a much quicker fashion.