POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Oh please, why would anyone bother to note this?
One gets sick of American flags everywhere, as though we didn't know what country a person came from?
Rather than a symbol of love of country, the American flag in many uses unfortunately has become an unpleasant imperial symbol.
It serves as a symbol of intimidation, as in: love it or leave it.
And it serves as threatening war paint.
Lots of flags and drums were hallmarks of NAZI Germany, Fascist Italy, and every other state of that nature.
And look at the nasty bunch who always wear flag pins on their lapels: Bush, Cheney, DeLay. I suspect these thugs have flag pins on their pajamas and bath robes.
God, hasn't the world suffered enough from people wearing flag pins?
Three million souls extinguished in Vietnam? A million in Iraq? Countless injured innocents everywhere from Somalia to Chile, from Afghanistan to Guatemala?
God save us from the kind of patriotism that insists on wearing its flag pin.
