In the flurry of excitement and emotion on this historic day, I did something I haven’t done in years. I searched around the house to see if I had an American flag to hang out. I didn’t find one and that shocked me. As the daughter of a man who was a West Point graduate, a career military officer and a decorated veteran of two wars, I grew up in a house that always had an American flag. Even shortly before his death from cancer, when he was too weak to do much, my father still went out on every clear, cold Maine morning to raise the flag. Then made sure, with military precision, to lower it before sundown. A flag means a lot more to you when you’ve served it for most of your adult life, even to the point of risking your life for it.
When I left home, I always had an American flag around somewhere. It was usually packed away in a drawer, but I often managed to get it out on Veterans Day or the Fourth of July. Somewhere along the line, I stopped doing that, maybe about the time I married a Brit. But on Veterans Day or the Fourth, I would always think that I should be putting up the flag.
Then eight years ago, I started actually being embarrassed to have a flag or even think about putting it out. I attended a number of reunions and events at West Point where we were given flag pins. I ended up sticking them in a jewelry box. Way in the back. With no intention of actually wearing them. I hadn’t grown ashamed of the flag or even of my country. But I became profoundly uncomfortable with what flying the flag, wearing flag pins and even singing the National Anthem out loud had come to mean.
At some point in the last eight years, the people who flew the flag most vigorously, who wore their flag pins most ostentatiously and who bellowed out the national anthem the loudest, started to be the people with the least understanding of what these things mean. They were five time draft dodgers like Cheney who had no compunction about sending other people’s kids to the kind of wars he has said he didn’t fight because, he “had better things to do.” They were smirky overpriveledged frat boys like Bush, Jr. who had Daddy pull strings to get him out of Viet Nam, but then couldn’t put in the time for the alternative, but still valuable, National Guard duty he should have performed. In fact, it was alarming how many people in the Bush Administration opted out of serving their country in war, but were perfectly happy to send other people’s children, not for the defense of the country but to further a cynical political agenda and line their own pockets. The final insult to injury, this was an administration, more than perhaps any other in history, that systematically gutted the Veterans Administration, the benefits and the support for the troops they were all screaming that we should support. (A West Point widow that I know is actively involved in support programs for the active and hospitalized troops. Any one of her stories would make you fall down and weep.)
But my new President’s inspirational speech (full draft here) makes me want to put out that flag again. Besides his strong repudiation of everything the Bush administration has done and his reaffirmation of what America should stand for, he articulated something few leaders have done in decades. He told us that we all have duties and responsibilities of citizenship. And suddenly it seems as if we aren’t going to have a country where only a few give the ultimate service while the rest of us are just asked to shop. Michelle Obama’s attention to military families says to me that those who do serve on the front lines won’t be abandoned once they are disabled or no longer needed.
But most of all, I was touched by those thousands of people — all colors, all ages, new Americans and those who were born here — who were waving American flags as if suddenly America was back in their hands. And I think it is.
Yes, my British husband will be annoyed. But I’m getting a flag and I’ll be flying it.
On a Humorous Note:
In San Francisco, one of our great cross-city thoroughfares is Bush Street (not named after THOSE Bushes!) Sometime last night, pranksters changed nearly every Bush Street sign to Obama! Let's keep it. San Francisco should be the first city with an Obama Street! (This photo is mine.)
Mall photo from the Financial Times Online
You go girl!
I am surprised that anti-Obama folks haven’t posted a nasty comment on your blog. I got a nasty comment yesterday. I was going to delete it but decided to leave it there. Freedom of speech and all.
Great post! Very moving!
I’m with Scriber. I’m surprised too about the absence of nasty comments, but totally get where you’re coming from. Many of have been stricken with pride after watching yesterday unfold.
I had a flag pole at my first house in Jersey and if I were still there, I’d be flying it.
The patriotic spirit was genuine yesterday, not the forced “U.S.A” zombie chant the more nationalistic spirit invokes. I hope we can keep the good balance of love for country and love for all people.
A friend of mine posted a poem honoring Obama and his inauguration yesterday and had one comment that I think was disrespectful. The person, an elderly man, didn’t talk about the poem just how much the nation will fall under Obama and be turned over to Liberals, who according to him already have TV media in their pockets.
Like that last pic. Oh, your husband won’t mind. Obama’s got fans all over the world.
Why can there be no ‘middle way’ politically with this country? It seems each election is a practically manic reaction to the previous, building to more and more extreme crescendos.
To the victors, I implore you to seek out and greet your “them’s” personally, with an open mind, and with sportsmanlike “good game” handshake. Keep in mind that while you “won”, you still in the minority of Americans – voting or not. This majority is still the responsibility of the victors.
Meet in the middle, I implore you. Remember, W was elected partially as a backlash to Clinton, who was himself elected partially as a backlash to Bush/Regan – and so on.
Meet in the middle, and keep the pendulum from crashing back in 4 or 8 years and undoing anything useful that may have happened in the meantime.
Include everyone, and work on eliminating your personal ‘them’.
Nick
Hear hear! Thanks for posting the link to this beautiful essay on my flickr page. I am already so impressed with how Obama is trying hard to unify–the country, the two sides of the aisle, dare I say the entire world. It is sad that there are those who can’t and probably won’t accept that a lot of us wanted change–and that this man looked like our best bet. Me, though, I’m hopeful and optimistic that he CAN bring on change, and by that I mean good change. So glad the last eight years are over. (Though I’m kinda sorry term limits were in place for this election: it would have been so gratifying to watch Bush get trounced. Which I know he would have.)
And yes, it is wonderful to be able to reclaim the flag. It’s a powerful symbol, when it’s in the correct (I won’t say right) hands!
Of what value is a flag if a single man can strip or imbue it with meaning?
Hang the flag, I say, and be a citizen of the world.
Scooter, we’ll have to agree to disagree here. The flag is a very potent symbol, especially for those of us with close ties to the military. My family has been associated with the military since ancestors on my mother’s side fought the British with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. So we may be coming from different perspectives.
As far as a “middle way”, I think we are there. Obama has an 83% approval rating already, which says to me that lots of people who DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM are willing to give him props and give him a chance. Obama himself has also made it a centerpiece of his transition to reach across the aisles and across traditional divisions — to Republicans, to former rivals and even to the Religious Right. He’s also not calling for radical change. He’s calling for getting back to basics and Constitutional values that this country was founded on. Something we’ve lost in the last eight years.