So-called patriots in the Senate recently wasted 2 days debating an amendment to the Constitution which would have banned flag desecration. In all honesty, I believe that most of these holier than thou nationalists could give a flying fricassee about the stars and stripes. Indeed, I suspect that many of them are far more loyal to this flag and all that it represents:
The claim is often made by its supporters that this symbol of slavery, racism and prejudice represents “heritage” not hate. That is, it’s just a source of regional pride, and respect for ancestors who fought to defend their way of life once upon a time. To which I have a nice, succinct reply: Bullshit.
Make no mistake, this “heritage flag” is all about hate in the minds of its adherents. And they are far more loyal to what it represents, than they are to the principles of freedom and equality which are the hallmarks of our Constitution, as amended.
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That qualification, “as amended,” is important, for the Constitution as originally drafted upheld the right to own slaves, and did not extend the right to vote to minorities. That did not occur until after a bloody civil war and the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. The ability to exercise that vital right, however, was suppressed in many states for the next hundred years until passage in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 mandated federal protection of the right to vote for African-Americans and other minorities.
Yet, it was the Civil War which irrevocably changed what the Stars and Stripes represents. No longer was it the mere flag of a loose union of former British colonies. Instead, our flag became the true symbol of freedom, justice and equality for all people, because our Constitution now required that those principles being given the force of law. For a long time we, as a nation, failed to live up to those, not just ideals, but Constitutional requirements, but we couldn’t abandon them completely no matter how hard we tried. The wheel of history grinds slowly, but it does progress when you point yourself down the right path.
Those who disagreed with the new, improved version of America, did not go quietly into the night. They raised up an old banner from that horrible civil war as a symbol of the America they had lost, and would seek to regain again. An America that would celebrate the dominion by white protestant men over all others who call this land their home. An America that would forever keep the womenfolk and the “colored”, the Catholics and the Jews, the Asians and Latinos, in their proper, subservient place beneath the boot heels of white christian men.
For over a hundred years they held back the forces of progress, until the evil of their racist ideology could no longer be squared with the ideals which our nation claimed to espouse. After the brutality and horror of the Second World War, where militaristic regimes in Germany and Japan ran roughshod over the planet, killing and murdering their “racial inferiors” with impunity, America could no longer tolerate the skeletons in its own closet that the Stars and Bars had come to represent.
Now, after a long journey in the wilderness, these bigots once more seek to bring their vision of America to fruition. The signs are everywhere: from Congress’ failure to reauthorize the Votings Rights Act, to the active recruitment by our armed forces of white supremacists and Neo-nazis. From organizations like Stop the ACLU which targeted a Jewish family and forced them to flee from their home in fear, to leading conservatives who gleefully “joke” about bringing death and mayhem to their political opponents.
These “conservatives” may claim to be American patriots, but the flag they worship is not this one:
This flag, the only American flag, cannot be desecrated by being burnt, or spit upon, or trampled underfoot. It can only be desecrated if we surrender our most cherished values, and abandon our Constitutionally protected rights out of fear or hatred. For it is only when we put into practice the values and beliefs of those who fly the Stars and Bars — a flag that stands for everything the I despise: injustice, inequality and violence in support of irrational hatred for those who are different — that we truly bring shame and dishonor upon our Nation’s flag. And upon ourselves.
