Memorial Day, our flag, and fake patriotism
As a reminder, Memorial Day, (formerly Decoration Day), is a national day of remembrance and reflection of the sacrifices made by our nation's war dead. The observance was never intended to honor militarism, xenophobia, or bigotry.
It is customary and highly appropriate to prominently and appropriately display our national ensign on days such as these as well as on every other day. However, patriotism comes in two forms, the authentic version backed by civic behavior and the false type, easily identifiable by behaviors inconsistent with a love for our country's highest values.
Above are six images that represent the latter, fake, and ignorant patriotism seen in our country.
From the top row, far left, is the flag that flew over Europe's concentration camps in the 1930s and 40s. 12 million souls perished as a result of this flag's ideology. Next comes a similar symbol that represents white supremacy, once with the aim of perpetuating slavery, and now as a reaction to the expansion of civil rights to all Americans. At the end of the row is the flag of a terrorist group comprised of religious fundamentalists.
Starting off the bottom row is a carelessly neglected U.S. flag that should long ago have been hauled down and given honorable disposal. In the center is the flag of another religion-based terrorist group, one whose members were recently described as including some very fine people. Its values are nearly identical to the rag displayed directly above. Finally, we have an all-too-familiar sight today, the racist response to protests against well-documented police brutality against African Americans. While some who display this coded support for white supremacy may be painfully ignorant of how this insidious appropriation of our country's flag came to be, it's not about supporting responsible police officers.
So on this Memorial Day, let's honor our war dead and resolve to take a stand against those who desecrate the high ideas for which so many men and women died trying to preserve.