Today is Veteran’s Day - a celebration of the country’s military veterans, and it seems appropriate to spend a few minutes reflecting on a recent trend that purports to show patriotism while, ironically, disrespecting the primary symbol of the country these veterans served: the United States flag.
You’ve seen these modified flags, you might even have one on your truck or SUV, as an expression of support for police, the army, or firefighters.
A noble sentiment. And a painfully misguided one, to put it mildly.
The misguided part is that in support of a patriotic tradition this display violates the United States Flag Code, which explicitly states in the paragraph titled “Respect for flag”:
“The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”
The blue, red, green, monochromatic flag modifications are clearly “design, picture, or drawing” superimposed on top of the flag. At the very least, contravening the official United States Flag code ought to be enough to ditch those displays - but there’s a deeper philosophical reason, and it’s so obvious as to be completely invisible.
The flag represents the entire country, with all its diversity, ambivalence, and complexity. The “line”, on the other hand, literally divides the flag in two - “protecting” the one side from the other.
This isn’t an overzealous interpretation, that is literally the origin of the phrase that was co-opted by an American entrepreneur - a phrase that can be traced back to the Crimean War of 1853, when a “thin red streak” of a Scottish regimen defended against a Russian cavalry assault.
If you’ve read my other posts, you already know my stance on language and reality, and in this case, this additional symbology creates a visual aid reinforcing the “us vs. them” mentality.
After all, who exactly is on one side of the line and who is on the other? Who is this line protecting us from? Is it “us” who are the threat? Whose destructive charge is the “line” struggling to stop?
The line divides the United States, and it couldn’t be more obvious once you see it. It’s not United any more - it’s us, versus them, and it’s up to the “line” to stop the onslaught of whoever the imagined undesirables are.
That is the message of the defaced flag.
It’s un-American, it’s un-Patriotic, and the painful irony is that those expressing their patriotism this way are in fact attacking its foundations.