I Was a Teenage Flag Burner
I was fourteen in 1972, and I was an anti-war-weather-underground-pissed-off little motherfucker. On the 4th of July that year I toured my neighborhood with a bottle of lighter fluid and a lighter. I walked from house to house burning people's flags.
One old guy, a member of American Legion (judging by the stickers on his car), probably a World War 2 veteran, emerged yelling from his house and waving a gun. I was gone with the wind.
I'm not proud of that, and I certainly would never do something like that today. But I still understand the reasons I had then. Kissinger and Nixon, aside from being repulsive people, were prosecuting an absurd war in Southeast Asia which at that point seemed only to be expanding. We were killing people, and we had no decent reason.
I think about that time a lot now, as flags fly everywhere. I have warmed to the flag to some extent, and I think the kind of unity that is expressed by its current omnipresence is, overall, a good thing. I also think we have every reason to fight in Afghanistan, and perhaps elsewhere. But I also understand that people around the world view the US as an incredibly powerful and incredibly rich and incredibly oppressive force, and I see their point.
So I still haven't quite gotten my head into the degree of patriotism it would take to fly the flag myself. Instead, I've been exploring alternatives, especially early American flags that can express a feeling of rebellion as well as patriotism.
I've been flying the Gadsden flag, a rattlesnake on a yellow ground with the legend "Don't Tread on Me." I'm not the only one; I've seen that sucker flying from highway overpasses and flag poles in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Ben Franklin developed the rattlesnake as a symbol of the colonies. Rattlers are native to North America, and they're perfectly benign as long as you leave them alone. So the Gadsden flag expressed independence from Europe and self-defense. That makes it particularly appropriate in our current situation. We've been trodden on.
Another great revolutionary-era American symbol is the green pine on a white ground, with the legend "An Appeal to Heaven." This flag was used, especially by ships, in the New England states, and is reflected in the current state flag of Vermont.
But the one I've settled on is known as the Fort Moultrie flag. It is a white crescent moon in the upper lefthand corner of a dark blue ground, with the word "liberty" underneath. It originates in the defense by Colonel William Moultrie of a fort in the Charleston harbor in June 1776, one of the first actions in the South during the Revolutionary War. It served as a national flag in the south during the war, and was later incorporated into the state flag of South Carolina.
I like it because it's simple and beautiful. I like it because it's different. And I like it because it expresses what I love about this country (besides bluegrass music, hardcore punk, and hip hop): the vision of liberty inculcated by the founders. I want a way to express patriotism that stops short of uncritical support.
I've found my American flag.
