Whose Flag?

Join the Cheeseheads in New York May 17th!

Taxpayers bailed out M&I with $1.7 billion of TARP funds. Instead of repaying the money, M&I executives and employees gave $54,000 in political contributions to Governor Scott Walker. Plus, M&I is planning on paying its failed executives $71 million in bonuses this year when the bank is sold to the Canadian-owned Harris Bank.

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO is the latest in a wave of businesses, organizations, and individuals who are closing their accounts with M&I Bank. The federation closed out a $100,000 CD it held at M&I.

You are invited to join the Cheeseheads at noon in Time Square on May 17th, and you can find more information at M&I Bank Not Welcome.

Can you attend this rally? I can't but I hope lots of us from Wisconsin can!

Andy was in the military for many years. As a new officer-in-training one of the things he, and of course all military people, learned is proper flag etiquette. This involves not only how to fold a flag properly but how to raise and lower the flag, how to display the flag and what the appropriate behavior is during the raising and lowering of the flag. Often, as we drive through town or even on road trips, we remark how many people do not seem to know proper flag etiquette. We see tattered flags flying at night with no illumination, flags flying in storms, flags touching the ground, flags left to essentially rot on the flag pole. We see these flags in front of private homes, in front of schools, churches and businesses. And here's what we think when we see these bedraggled flags.

If the flag represents something of who we are, our history, our sacrifices, our pride (mind you none of these things are sacred, they are just identified as a part of our identity as a nation) then perhaps it behooves us to pay closer attention to what we do with this symbol and what we mean by it when we choose to fly it. Both of us find the ultra-right wing, tea party conservatives involved in trying to hi-jack the flag as their own. That's been going on for years of course but it's even more virulent right now. The flag of the United States does not belong to one political party or one belief system alone. It doesn't exclusively belong to tea party people or Rush Limbaugh or Scott Walker. It doesn't belong only to Christians or the rich or to people who say "love it or leave it".

So, the other night we wondered whether or not some of the flags flying here and there in town might be at the houses and businesses of people who would feel the flag doesn't belong to liberals or to union teachers or to democrats or to poor people or to people who do not believe we should be involved in three wars. If we might just be right on a few then the flying of the flag in all kinds of terrible weather, flying it at night unlit, flying it ripped and faded is a failure to make good on one's politics and revere the symbol you have stated is yours alone.

We might just start a little service. We'll drive around leaving Flag Etiquette Citations on doors and at churches and schools and businesses. Those will tell people the proper way to display, light, replace, dispose of and honor the flag. If you are going to call down the stars and stripes thunder then you had better well be up to the task! Here's a few of the most important aspects of flag etiquette:

Fly only flags in good shape with vibrant colors.
Never fly a U.S. flag at night without adequate illumination.
Never fly a U.S. flag during any kind of extreme weather. This includes rain and snow.
Raise the flag smartly in the morning; retire the flag slowly and with honor in the early evening.
Dispose of an old flag properly by burning. Yup, that's correct.
If you happen to be walking by a home or other place where a flag is being raised or lowered, stop and stand quietly to show respect.
Google flag etiquette for the proper way to fold a flag.

But what would all that flag etiquette mean in serious terms, terms that can tell us what any of this pride in country could mean? I think it is a good time in our country to offer the topic of patriotism up for discussion. We of liberal tendencies have long been walking alongside those who wrap themselves in our flag, who make an often ostentatious display of the flag and seek to tie that flag waving to horrible decisions that have brought us to terrible places. It is time to talk seriously about these things - the flag and what patriotism means to each of us and what a blind, unthoughtful statement like "love it or leave it" does to children and other human beings. It is far greater than flag etiquette but if you know someone who is disrespecting the flag, let them know and engage them in a conversation about what they believe that symbol is all about. I'll leave with something John Denver used to recite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGCH_LBFKRE

Power To All The People!