Reclaiming Our Flag for all of us who are America
June 14th will always be to me, my mother in law’s birthday. Joan was proud of being born on flag day, and she and my father in-law, Nick, both democratic progressive Catholics, hung the flag in their front yard every June 14th. The flag, then, held no symbolism for Joan and Nick, of the parties or differing philosophies within our government. It meant they were proud of America, their home, appreciative of the freedom they lived with each day, proud of their our country that supported the freedom, dreams and visions of its citizens, and cared about the rest of the world.
Today, I will join in my local “No King’s” protest march against autocracy, to stand for our democracy and the country I love. I join at least a million and half others across the nation who will carry flags, as symbols of our America, a country with room and freedom for all, a visionary country that has stood for the nourishment of the visions of its citizens.
I ordered twelve, sixteen by twenty-four inch flags. I will carry one and share the others. Today, I will not think about the man who lives in the Whitehouse who shares my mother in-law’s birthday and how he chooses to celebrate his. I will think about the flag waving in front of my in-law’s home, their smiles as they raised it, and the simple symbolism of the stars and stripes. I will think about a country able to unite fifty states into a nation, a country that until this past January, has been able to nourish its democracy, a country that cares about the world, the earth and a the life that lives upon it.
There is a humility in carrying our country’s flag. It can remind us that we are a part of something bigger than us. It can remind us that our country doesn’t exist to fulfill our individual desires, it exists to help all of us live together in the greatest harmony possible. The family I married into, though white and upper middle class, opened its arms to their children in-law and their grandchildren, black, transgender, neurodiverse, physically disabled. They made room for all of us, without judgment. They embraced us as their family. I carry the flag in memory of Joan, and in my own peaceful fight for the inclusive, good hearted, country that I love.