After reading this article, Rally round the flag, and IM’ing with Naomi, I just had to comment. See, I agree with some of the things that article says. All of these people are quickly whipping out their flags now, flying them high and proud … but where was your flag two weeks ago? Did you own one? Did you fly one? I didn’t. I have a flag, but it’s a small one. I have considered buying one, Kymberlie & I even talked the other day about how she remembered me looking at the flag poles & holders one day at Wal-Mart. I had said then that I wondered if my apartment would be ok with me putting one up. (I know, rights, freedoms, it’s the FLAG after all, but I live in an apartment facing the nice pool/courtyard area. I have to worry about these things.) I never bought my flag this summer. I considered it last week, but didn’t. No reason why, I just didn’t go to the store. (If I don’t go tonight the cats will kill me in my sleep because they are probably out of cat food by now…)
The people flying the flag today are the same people that stood with me this spring at a baseball game, standing with their hats over their chest but NOT SINGING the national anthem. Don’t tell me you don’t know the words, because at every major league ballpark in America they display the words. Don’t tell me that your singing is terrible, because it’s a baseball stadium and if we all sing no one will be able to pick out your voice. There were maybe 5 people out of 50 in the immediate area that were singing. I bet if I went to a baseball game next week they would all be singing, their hearts swelling with American Pride. Ok, where was that pride last April?
Why does it take such a tragedy to make you stop and be proud? I sing the National Anthem *every* time I hear it. Probably much to the dismay of everyone standing around me. I don’t care. I make my son sing it too, even though he hates to sing. It is the right thing to do. I am probably even more aware that we should do these things thanks to him being a Cub Scout. More importantly, my ex-husband serves in the US Army. I have many friends that have been in the military in the past. I am PROUD that I am an American. Every day. My family left their heritage behind less than 100 years ago (on my mom’s side) to come to America. This is my home, and I will stand in support.
Then there is the Lee Greenwood song, “I’m Proud to be an American”. First let me confess … I hate that song. Back in 1990, I cried every time I heard that song. Then there was Desert Storm. And they played that song soooooo many times, now it just turns my stomach. My boss’s office is across the hall from me. (in other words, his desk is maybe 15 feet away) Today he had a screensaver on that kept playing that song … over and over and over… and I got to thinking…
“And I’m Proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m FREE.” (As the government reads our e-mail and taps our phones “for safety” and strips us of who knows what other rights…)
“And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me!” (As we toss the civil liberties our country has fought so hard for time & time again for 225 years to the side out of fear.)
“And I’ll gladly stand UP next to you and defend her still today…” (Ummm, will you? Would you enlist to fight right now if you had to? Or if you were able to? Not everyone can … age, family, etc. Then again, that wasn’t an issue for our Founding Fathers now, was it? Or does “stand up” for you just mean wave a flag and applause the other people who serve?)
“Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land… God Bless the USA!” (Ok, I can’t say negative anything about this line. I do love this land. Well, one thing… there is the irony that we have “God Bless the USA” all over the place, even on our currency, but we won’t allow prayer in school.)
I realize that’s not the National Anthem, but it gets a lot more air time. So I had to share my commentary.
(Naomi wanted me to post about the fact that she turned on mindless television (not a channel with news) and there was an old Star Trek episode on where all the women have rather pointy boobs. She realized that me adding that though would be, ironically, pointless.)
6 replies on “The Flag, the Songs, and more…”
I have to admit we are one of the “guilty” ones (although I refuse to feel that way) for buying a flag the day the bombings occurred. However, we bought our first house at the end of June, and were too po’ to buy a new flag a week later for the Fourth. We hung our OU flag when we moved in instead, which had always just been tacked up when we lived in an apartment. I always decorate for the Fourth, but just never lived anywhere I could fly a flag ’til now, so I put out red, white, and blue decorations and welcome signs instead. At this point I don’t care how people “found” their patriotism, however — just that they KEEP it in the trying days ahead!
I agree, I hope that all of these people KEEP their patriotism. I think that our parent’s generation lost some due to Vietnam, Watergate, etc. – but my grandparents (first generation Americans on one side, and the other a veteran of WWII) were VERY patriotic. Sad, but I hope this is one of the end results for our nation.
Tommy’s Dad has always flown a flag outside their house (and when this all blows over and the “trend” is gone, I will put one outside ours) but he took it down the day it happened. He said he will put it back up the day we kill one of their people. Yikes! Spoken like a true war veteran. Great entry.
Yep, I always sing the anthem — and have been known to bop the head of the guy next to me that won’t take off his baseball cap during it. I think last year’s OU/Nebraska game was the most difficult anthem I’ve ever had to sing though. I hadn’t been back in that stadium since my graduation in ’95 — and at that time the flags were flown at half-mast b/c of the OKC bombing. To see it raised all the way up that day, amidst such excitement, really got to me.
Anyway, my comment is about that Greenwood song. He’ll gladly stand up, but he conveniently got a exemption from the Vietnam draft and then his whereabouts couldn’t be accounted for. (Some say he went to Canada, but he “doesn’t remember” where he was.) In the mid-80s, when it was “cool” again to be patriotic, there he is. It’s just so ironic that that song is used so often to honor military members, when it comes from someone who would NOT choose to join the military.
Riddle me this, batman … how can you NOT REMEMBER where you were during Vietnam??? Granted, I am only 32, but I can pretty much account for my locale every day of my life. Man…