When I was in the Boy Scouts in rural North Carolina, a fellow Scout and I had a job each afternoon. We pedaled our banana-seat bikes to the post office and lowered the American flag, properly giving it the required 13 folds, and presenting it to the postmaster.
We joked as we rode there, and joked afterwards, but during those two minutes, we remained solemn. This was the American flag, after all. It’s what my father fought for in WWII and was the banner under which my illegal immigrant Russian grandparents wanted to live. The flag represented all the goodness of this country, including the various and sundry constitutional amendments. For instance, the flag stands behind the Second Amendment, despite all the charged rhetoric and my very deep concerns about how it’s been abused. The flag also stands behind the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, which my grandfather argued was the beginning of the end of America as he knew it.
It also stands for the First Amendment, which more than any other, establishes America as a beacon to the world. It’s the first on the list for a reason and not, say, some afterthought tacked on to the Constitution a hundred years later. And it was the American flag, and after World War I, the “Star Spangled Banner” which became outward expressions of appreciation for the democratic ideals our forefathers envisioned.
Of course, I’m hard-pressed to say that we’ve given the flag much respect lately. For instance, those who died fighting for democracy might be distressed to discover the flag is seldom lowered and folded 13 time anymore at the end of each day. Little plastic flags are poked into the ground at cemeteries and left there until taken to the landfill. At the picnic this weekend, let’s sit our tails down on top of an American flag-adorned picnic blanket available from throwgousa.com. “Nothing stirs American pride and our love for this great nation like Old Glory,” the website proclaims, as its customers stomp over the flag on the ground.
When done, wipe the BBQ chicken sauce from your lips with Old Glory napkins, which Michaels.com assures you are “essential . . . for any patriotic theme party,” and then toss into the American flag garbage bag from Proud-American-spiderwebshade-trash-bag.com. All that grease getting to you? Run to the bathroom, close the stall door behind you (please!) and yank down your stretched-cotton American flag briefs delivered from Walmart.com (a quick peek at the website photo demonstrates the red and white stripes securely gripping a model’s crotch). When it’s time for the paperwork, clean up with the American flag toilet paper supplied by Amazon.com. These are all real products and yet I see no outrage on any web chat rooms.
And, yes, these are really flags as stipulated by Section 3 of the United States Flag Code.
Boycott Walmart if you wish, but some dufus’ right to parade around in American flag underwear is protected by the First Amendment. You want to dis the president, say it loud and proud, that’s an American right as well. Try that in Russia. (Though do keep in mind that if you want to threaten the president, even in jest, expect the knock on your door—oddly enough, also like in Russia, except they won’t bother to knock.)
It would help, of course, if President Trump understood the difference between earning respect and demanding it, which came into light when he lambasted NFL players for taking a knee during the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner.” He called for them to be kicked out of the game. This is pretty rich stuff, coming from someone who fought so boldly to stay out of the army on behalf of his bone spurs, and who said a United States senator who spent five years being tortured in a POW camp was not an American hero. Perhaps if Senator McCain had spent those years in Trump Plaza instead of the Hanoi Hilton our president would have expressed more gratitude. This is the same president who has so many connections to America’s biggest enemy he could host his own RussianAmerican Memorial Day Picnic.
For Trump to pressure the NFL to force players to “respect” the flag and National Anthem is not patriotism is saying freedom of expression is limited to only those expressions you like.
The NFL team owners responded with equal bravery this week by writing a new rule to resolve an emotionally charged issue. Actually, what they did was reveal that even if they owned a pair of flag-draped underwear, they have nothing underneath for those red and white stripes to snugly secure. You can’t force someone to respect the American flag, whether printed on a garbage bag or emblazoned on a F-22 Raptor, any more than you can force respect of a poem written by an attorney at Fort McHenry in 1814, catchy as it is. However, you can respect the ideals for which they stand, the ones encapsulated at the very tippy top of the Constitutional amendments.
So spare me any outrage about kneeling. The same Constitutional amendment that enables enthusiastic chants of “Lock her up!” (or in the case of that great American, Michael Flynn, “Lock him up!”) allows football players to interpret respect on their own terms, not at the tip of a sword. For all the fans know, the players are kneeling while trying to remember how many zeros are in their 401(k) accounts.
I might note, there was one NFL owner—Christopher Johnson of the New York Jets—who defended the Constitution instead of trying to suppress it. He voted no to the new rule, saying the topic demands conversation, not forced obedience. Now, that gets my respect. Give that man a pair of American flag tighties. Just keep the stall door closed.
Rob Levin is president and editor of a book publishing company in Covington and is a former national feature writer for the Atlanta Constitution.
