Flags

By Renee Shay, Harvesting Thought

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There are three days in my life that I felt a deep and gut-wrenching visceral connection to flags. To remind myself of two of those events so that I could write about them in one of my next blogs, I texted the word “flags” to myself just this past Monday. I previously had two flag events that I was thinking about as I looked back on my life that hit me so emotionally that it imprinted on my psyche and that was what I wanted to write about. The first day was September 11, 2001, the second, February 12, 2017, and now unfortunately a third day has been added just this very week, January 6, 2021.

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The day, September 11, 2001, was the first time in my life I had ever felt a deep sense of patriotism. I got it, I understood what it finally felt like, what my parents and grandparents had felt, to want to fly a flag and want to defend their land. We were attacked by foreign terrorists, and I was ready to defend. I do not need to provide much more explanation than that, the world all knows how they felt on that day too.

I have flown an American flag, the one with the fifty stars and thirteen stripes, that one and only representation of our democracy, our freedom, on my house ever since. I am proud to be an American, who would not be. The greatest power in the world, the most generous nation in the world. I have had a birthright membership and a general global protection anywhere in the world purely based upon an admiration for our democracy. The envy of the world. Make no mistake, I am proud to be American.

The second flag day was February 12, 2017, though happened because of a combination of days and months which led me to virtually raising the Mexico flag in support of those hardworking people. I spent so much time as a visitor traveling in their beautiful country, they hold a place in my heart. I support those that want to legally come to the United States and those “Dreamers” already here. Legal, illegal, they were bucketed together and all under attack as our country was moving into a direction of vilifying all immigrants, especially Central and South Americans, even the children. The hatred and racism for political favor or gain in our country was heartbreaking. Again, I do not condone illegal border crossings, absolutely not. I defend our laws every day but to not stand up to hatred, to racism, that would be a shame. I stand up for legal immigration, Viva Mexico.

This brings me to the third day, January 6, 2021, which was just yesterday. The riotous attack on our first branch of government, the legislative congressional leadership and our fellow citizens working in our United States Capitol building, is a gut-punch that still reverberates in my body more than 24-hours later. To see the videos of the invasion and the property destruction was so saddening. The flying of a confederate flag, “don’t tread on me” and other flags brought into our capital, a sad day indeed.

A desecration of our democracy on full display for the entire world to see took place in our country this week. The world we have enjoyed all the privilege of envy from, envy that will wither away by such ugliness if it continues. The flag flying mob rioters and the actions they took was absolutely nothing to be proud about, having killed five Americans and that is one too many Americans dead today. Like the over 365,000 dead and counting from the COVID-19 pandemic was not enough.

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Flags, flags, flags, they can be symbolism of belonging, of strength, of courage, of pride, of calls to action. They can also be symbols of evil as we saw yesterday in our Nation’s Capital. Un-American flags flying in the face of our leaders we have entrusted with our lives to govern our freedoms. Flags that will forever be etched into our memories that are now associated with the spilling of American blood on our capital floor.

Flags can become bookends in our minds to periods of history that we must not soon forget, least we repeat, repeat, repeat the sins of our past. What flags do you pledge allegiance to? We as America, I believe, should have only one flag that our allegiance is to ensure our enduring freedom. I believe that is the flag of fifty stars and thirteen stripes, the flag of the United States of America. Ask yourself, do you believe the same?