I was at a protest against the first Gulf War, the police had moved us to the North side of Lafayette Park. It was a small gathering but people were answering the call by anti-war organizations for daily actions to keep up the resistance and to keep the public aware. I was carrying an American flag mounted upside down on a poll signaling to the general public our war state nation was in distress. Drivers on H Street NW were honking and flashing peace signs as well as honking and yelling F*@K YOU (to which I got my fellow protesters to yell "NO THANK YOU" which actually made a lot of the F U people laugh. A car load of guys at the traffic light had yelled F U to me, I responded "No thank you" and they were all "What did you say?" and so I said "No thank you" again and they started laughing and when the light turned green honked and flashed peace signs, still laughing.). Along comes a group of guys, big, built, buzz cuts, turns out they were from the Marine Barracks in D.C. and they informed me they did not like me waving the American flag upside down. (I'll note here that the D.C. cops, about 6 of them, who had been watching our protest from across the street had all come down to the corner across from me and were watching). I told those guys I was exercising my right of free speech, that I was not breaking the law and that I was not disrespecting the flag. We ended up having a friendly discussion about the war (if they were going to request transfers to units to be deployed to the Gulf, they were not), protest (asked them if they are not in the U.S> military to defend our democracy why are they in the military?), the flag (got them to admit the flag is disrespected by flag motif bikinis and all the other products we bastardize the flag for for profit) and other things. The conversation went on for over an hour while I kept waving my upside down American flag at the traffic on H Street NW, but the D.C. cops had lost interest and had spread out along the other side of the street again. When the Marines left we all shook hands and flashed peace signs. Sometimes I wonder what happened to those guys and I hope and say a little prayer they made it through all the subsequent wars alive and well and are enjoying life. All this leads up to this article about respecting the flag, patriotism and individual opinions. From the Washington Post.......
Veterans don’t get to decide what ‘respecting the flag’ means
Our service doesn’t entitle us to get offended by Kapaernick’s choices or anybody else’s.
Nike must have known, when it began its new ad campaign with Colin Kaepernick — who started the kneeling protests in the NFL — that it was courting controversy. “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” the text says, superimposed over Kaepernick’s close-up. Veterans, not as stoic or stiff-lipped today as we once were, have been some of the most agitated about Nike’s choice, resulting in plenty of righteous indignation. The five soldiers I served with who were killed in action eight years ago in Kandahar would surely define “sacrificing everything” differently than Nike does.
But while most veterans have been measured in their responses, one strand of criticism is particularly disturbing: the notion that kneeling during the anthem is a specific affront to veterans and service members. As Kurt Schlichter, a combat veteran and contributor for Fox News, put it, Kaepernick “is targeting us. He knows what this means to us. He knows how insulting it is. He knows how disrespectful it is, and Nike is empowering it.” In a Facebook group for veterans that I belong to, someone wrote: “Anyone not respecting our flag should be deported. Many veterans and servicemen and women have died and suffered grievous wounds for this flag and anthem and constitution. Have some respect.” This argument isn’t new: Last year the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion chastised the protests as disrespectful.
This reasoning is rooted in a premise that is both wrong and dangerous. If kneeling for the anthem and the flag is a direct offense toward the military, that means veterans have a stronger claim to these symbols than Americans in general do. The argument insists that American iconography represents us more than it represents anyone else.
Yet the flag is not a symbol reserved for the military. It is a symbol of the United States of America, and it belongs equally to all citizens, including Americans who kneel during the anthem, or those who wear flag shirts (which is also in violation of the unenforceable flag code), or even those who burn the flag.
If we accept the idea that the military and veterans have authority over American symbols, we enforce a very narrow minority view of America and the American experience. Our cultural fabric is as rich as it is because the American myth has been interpreted, reinterpreted, criticized, praised and challenged by Americans of all backgrounds. If the military class were the arbiter of taste and ideology with regard to our iconography, we’d have a lot more of “13 Hours,” the bogus and hagiographical Benghazi movie, and a lot less of “Stripes” or “Catch-22.”
We are not an elite class of citizen elevated above our neighbors. When we start thinking of ourselves as a warrior caste, removed from the people we defend, we exacerbate the civilian-military divide. We indulge in an entitlement mentality that isn’t healthy, demanding special treatment, such as discounts or restrictions on fireworks that might upset vets with post-traumatic stress disorder. The message is, You’re welcome for my service .
We should be able to dislike something without seeing it as a personal affront. We should be able to oppose something without becoming frothy-mouthed and obsessed, as some veterans online have done over Nike’s ads. We should embrace Special Forces veteran Nate Boyer’s insistence that we show compassion for those we don’t agree with, while also acknowledging that everyone is free to boycott and destroy their Nike gear as they see fit.
What’s more, believing that we have a special claim to the flag conflicts with the fundamental values of the armed forces, which elevate service over self. Serving is an honor the American people grant us, and it is Americans — in their totality — whom we serve. This does not give us license to appropriate national symbols as our own exclusive banners. Service is a privilege, not a way to purchase greater moral authority.
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