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Image provided by: University at Buffalo
The S mm pECTI^IIM s! s £|J} 2 a toS u I Vol. 21, No. 4 State University of New York at Buffalo .1 commentary The true history of the American flag is clouded with myth. No one is even sure who designed the first flag. Laws pertaining to the flag are more certain, of course, and can be documented. In 1923 a “flag code” for civilians was adopted by a conference of patriotic organizations in Washington, D.C. A similar version of this code was ratified by Congress in 1942 by joint resolution. It contains this admonishment: For many the flag is no longer a symbol of pride, no longer the harbinger of an American land-ethnic, but a blunt visual command to follow, without question, where America leads. For this reason many in my generation (I am 23) look upon the flag with a queer mix of vestigal pride, distain, fear, and even hatred. To express these feelings is the clear constitutional right of any and all Americans. The flag was never intended to provoke a psychological civil war, as it has, or generational conflict, as it has, or to be taken up by one side and used against another in an intimidating fashion. It is my contention that the arrest of any party for COMMENTING on the American flag be it visual or otherwise, be it public or otherwise, is a clear and patent violation of the first article of the Bill of Rights, which states, in part; The flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. This is not unlike the First Commandment: \I am the Lord your God ... You shall have no other gods before M me... The flag has traditionally been a symbol of great patriotic pride. According to a popular legend, George Washington, then a General, once said: “We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country ... and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty.” Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof ... On July 5, 1968 President Johnson signed into law a bill providing malties for publicly burning, <-.r nthm-urico HoliKnr-.»niy But the Second Commandment warns: You shall not make for yourself aq ■aven im. for I the Lord your God am a or an likeness of United States flag. There are great totalitarian and corruptive possibilities in that law since “desecration” is open to local interpretation. It is clear this law has been abused. It has lent a public, executive character to flag-patriotism, the secular religion of United States nationalists. jealous god George Washington was not the first man to confuse patriotism (in this case, love of the flag with religion. He won't be the last. Flag-patriotism has now become a secular religion, with its own dogma, litany, icons, and advocates. At the center of this secular religion, waving grandly upon its altar, stands the American flag. This patriotism is religion in the technical sense of the word, as is Russian communism or any form of overt nationalism: It is a gradiose system of values, based on wish-fulfillment, and dedicated to the defense of insular principles and not to the attainment of knowledge. Flag-patriotism, like any other threatening religio-system (as history demonstrates) becomes increasingly narrow, dim-sighted, visceral, and antagonistic. The U.S. right wing is now the Morlock Swiss Guard of the American Vatican and the new emminance of the Stars and Stripes is accompanied by an historically inevitable welter of controversy, confrontation and (some would say) persecution. »ove To conclude, the civilian “flag code\ contains a passage with interesting metaphorical possibilities: The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way ... It is clearly time for the Stars and Stripes to die a dignified death; time for the American people to recognise the rich, divergent texture of their own character as a nation, and not rally at the alter of a flag, bugling mindlessly for certain apocalypse If of its idolic character, the flag will be, for this nation and for liberty, at half mast forever. -Corydon Ireland
