I hung my US flag today (or posted, rather? Y’know, sticking it on the aluminum pole that came with the bracket thing one bolts to the house) as I do any Fourth of July these past years. Not sure how long I’ve been doing it. Certainly more consistently since 2016, for, y’know, reasons that should be obvious. Not in support of our 45th president, mind you. But support for the country that which he wanted to undermine—which was proved succinctly on January 6, 2021 (and again and again during his current campaign for re-election). There seems to be quite a few people out there who, as a result of these tumultuous years, hesitate to fly the flag because the far-right has quite successfully co-opted one of the nation’s symbols into its own radical messaging. I don’t want to cede the US flag to any movement, crowd or cult.
Every resident of the United States has a stake in the flag, and should fly it without fear or judgement. Yes, including those with far-right inclinations. Those on the far left, and definitely the majority in between, should also exercise their ownership in that flag and fly it if they wish (no one must—it’s a free country), because we’re all a part of it.
I also fly the Canadian flag on July 1 each year—Canada Day. It’s where I was born and still maintain a passport. It’s a country where most still fly a flag, or you’ll find one in the house—no nationalist movement has declared they’re more Canadian, or that they’re real Canadians. The flag is enormous. I bought it years ago during one of our visits to the family shack up there, at the good ol’ Canadian Tire in town. Looking quickly at the package, I saw 96×48, and did some quick math in my head assuming those measurements were centimeters, as Canada, like nearly every other country on planet earth, uses the metric system. I thought, OK, a smaller flag, 3 feet by 1.5 feet, that could hang under the American flag on the pole at home in the US during the summer. That would be cool.
Yeah. That measurement was in inches—the flag was made and packaged in China. So. While I love my native country, like any Canadian, I, uh, generally tend toward modesty. Oh well. The living-room-rug-sized flag can fly at least that one day a year.
Happy Fourth of July to everyone out there, so matter where you fall on our ideological spectrum. Fly the flag, and remember that diversity is strength.
