What does the flag mean to you?

[rucky]

For me, it symbolizes bad taste.

It's a symbol. It's not real. The things it supposedly represents are real, but nobody can really agree on that one, either. Symbols are for dingbats (computer humor). So all you flag-waving dingbats out there, make sure you're stright about what you believe in before you defend the image that's supposed to represent it.

People who claim to love it most are willing to shred up our Bill of Rights to protect a piece of cloth from a protest procedure that's about as common as late-term abortion.

It's a great marketing tool. How many of you, after 9/11, said to yourself... "gee, I wonder who's selling all these flags, posters, greeting cards and bumper stickers...they must be rich"?

And another thing...

Nobody would mix stripes with polka dots, so why did Betsy Ross think stars would work any better?

Am I the only one here who doesn't get particularly attached to symbols?

[Maddy McCall]

1. Betsy Ross creating the flag

is nothing more than American mythology.

[jobycom]

2. Depends on who's waving it

No symbol has a fixed meaning. In Bush's hands, it means that America died on December 12, 2000. It's a joke told in bad taste. In the hands of a veteran it symbolizes sacrifice and unspeakable courage. In the hands of a small child it can mean hope.

At one point it meant America, but Poppy Bush ruined that meaning. Now it's just a bumper sticker, mostly.

[sujan]

3. nothing

well, a piece of cloth.

[proud patriot]

4. It is a "people's history of the united states" to me

The good the bad the in between .

The struggles of the oppressed and the successes
which the oppressed fought bravely for .

I do not see what bush sees when his eyes glaze over
the red white and blue .

I see unions and labor rights , I see the trail
of tears my ancesters walked . I see baseball
and thankgiving dinner . I see the railroad
my ancesters built .

I see the Will to overcome injustice in those colors .

For some reason I don't see the Government's coruption
in old glory .

When I think of our Government I see a skull and crossbones .

[Punkingal]

5. Well said, proud patriot.

That is what I feel, also, but I couldn't have expressed it as beautifully as you did. Thanks.

[proud patriot]

8. Thanks

:-)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. It has come to symbolize all those things, and more

But that is only because of the blind generations who believed everything they said, and let it happen.

To me, everytime I look at a flag... a real flag, not a bumper sticker, or a faded piece of shit on some overpass, or little plastic ones on SUV's, but a real flag on a 100 foot pole like at a military base or even a Post Office or Town Hall

Everytime I actually look and allow myself time to think back to what it means, I remember when it meant the most to me and it still does, sort of.

It meant we were back at the ship safely, watching the flag flipping this way and that way up above the flight deck. It meant we were back at basecamp after walking for 2 days. Landing at the Embassy after flying over rocket country. It meant we were back in the world, and that we were still part of it.

Blue sky, red stripes. Safety.

It is hard to explain exactly unless you have been there I guess.

[rucky]

7. Now I feel like a real asshole

well-put

:toast:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. No, don't feel that way. We forget this about America all the

time. We are too caught up in right/wrong left/right bullshit. Me, no Me!

Who gives a shit? It means that to me. It means this to you.

Move on. Move out. Fuck it.

It means exactly that, and what another poster said... the good things, the things not in history books, people. Real people who made this country, and will make it again.

It was not my intention to make you feel bad, far from it. I am sure that my interpretation is too weird for people 30 years my senior. They can't handle what is coming. I can.

[onebigbadwulf]

10. The east india company

and fundamentalist elitists exploiting their power and dividing the classes.

[La_Serpiente]

11. For me,

the flag represents the spirit of America. It doesn't choose its destiny. We choose its destiny. If we have lived up to its meaning, then we have accomplished a lot. If we have not lived up to its importance, then it deserves to be burned.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

12. Amen

And burned until someone notices and changes things.

[guitar man]

13. I think of my Dad mostly

Dad grew up during the depression.Grandaddy was a die hard Union man and Dad followed in his footsteps.

Dad joined the Navy in 1947 and wound up in Korea in 1950-51 fighting against the North Koreans and Communist Chinese and was wounded in combat.

He came home from the war,married my Mother and went to work driving over the road,buses at first then semi-trucks.He joined the Teamsters Union and worked 70 hours a week to provide for us.


He said "back during the depression,they liked to call union people communists.When we went and bled in Korea fighting the communists,that shut that noise up."

Now he is old and retired but still full of piss and vinegar,so I fly my flag out of respect for him and those like him,not for any dickweeds in Washington.

[teryang]

14. I pledge obesance to the flag....

...of the centralized security state, and to the corporatists for which it stands, one market, unregulable, with surveillance and oppression for all.

[rucky]

15. If * decides to "Privatize" the flag...

sell it exclusively to Halliburton, maybe, would they print "all rights reserved" at the bottom?

[VermontDem2004]

16. A piece of cloth

[Piperay]

17. A recognizable symbol

of my country, that includes the good and the bad and I am not going to give it up and let some RWer wrap themselves in something that belongs to EVERY American. :argh: :grr: :mad: