Old Glory

It was a dingy gray and wet spring day as I was driving down the main thorough-way in my hometown. As I approached a stoplight, and I veered into the left turn lane, I noticed a rag right in the middle of the lane where I would go over it with my car yet not run directly over it with the tires. The closer I came to it the more recognizable were its colors of red, white, and blue; and just as I went over it in my car I recognized it completely. It was a small U.S. flag that had broken off of a car's window, one with a plastic piece that attached it to that window.

Looking into the rear view mirror I noticed there were no other cars behind me and after a few seconds of deliberation I put the car in reverse. I backed up to the place, jumped out in the drizzly morning rain and picked up the flag. It's now hanging in my back patio. It looks rough. I'm not sure how long it had laid there on the highway. It looks as if it had been run over a few times. But even with all that, its red, white, and blue are still striking.

I love this flag. There's something about the U.S. flag that is above the government that flies its colors. There's something about the U.S. flag that is above Republicans and Democrats. There's something about the U.S. flag that is above the squabbling, the corruption, the bribery, the shamelessness, the conniving, the waste, the hypocrisy, the sham, the show for the media, etc., etc., etc.

I revile against my government because of the abuses perpetrated by people with "my" interests in mind. People that purport to "listen" to what I want. People that pretend to be in touch with me, the everyday American.

I love my country. I hate what they are doing to it.

I love my flag. I hate what they have done to it.