Started in 1776!
|Flag waved in fresh breeze.
|Holding truths self-evident,
|a nation broke free.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Our dream fought to be real, with
|liberty and justice for all.
 |
 |
Ended soon after 2025?
|Limp flag. Stifling heat.
|None but straight white wealthy males
|created equal.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Fascist crook will make it so,
|if we all submit to him.
In most years, Flag Day is little more than 06-14. This year is different, not only because of Tenney’s epic butt licking. The 250-th anniversary of the founding of the US Army is on 2025-06-14, so it would be appropriate to commemorate that milestone. The same leather-lunged patriots who recite from the Declaration of Independence on 07-04 could recite from Tom Paine’s Common Sense, which boosted recruitment and retention when the new army was near disintegration soon after its founding. Commemoration could include modest parades like those typical of Independence Day.
The immodest parade planned by DJT for Washington DC has $45 million as the lowest cost estimate I have seen. (Does that include a realistic estimate of the cost of repairing streets damaged by tank treads?) My own Flag Day celebration is unlike the extravagant displays typical of dictatorships. My flag is up, and a flag-themed wreath adorns my front door. There’s also a new yard sign.
Started in 1776!
|Flag waves in fresh breeze.
|Holding truths self-evident,
|our nation slogs on.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|The dream fights to be real, with
|liberty and justice for all.
|
|
Ended in 2024?
|Limp flag. Stifling heat.
|None but straight white wealthy males
|created equal.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Fascist crook will make it so,
|if the voters let him win.
Lavender salutes
red, white, and blue of our flag.
Pride and gratitude.
Tho I am not quite old enough to have been following the news on 1942-11-10, I remember what Winston Churchill said then to mark the victory at El Alamein:
“Now this is not the end.
It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
That first victory in 1942 ended the beginning of the long hard slog to rid the world of fascism. The riddance was temporary. Perhaps 2020 can begin the long hard slog to repair the damage done to the USA by about four decades of coddling plutocrats and four years of coddling bigots. Perhaps 2020 can begin to free the USA and other nations from creeping fascism disguised as conservatism.
For the moment anyway, here is the answer to the question about 2020 that I posed soon after the disastrous 2016 election:
Our flag is still there.
Memorial Colors
Lavender salutes
red, white, and blue of our flag.
Pride and gratitude.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Flags or Banners
Late May in my part of the USA is a time for blooming rhododendrons and several days of observing Memorial Day in various ways. On 2018-05-30, I found good conditions and a good angle for a composition with my new flag and old rhododendron. Tho not a color many would choose for a flag, lavender goes well with red, white, and blue for Memorial Day.
Memorial Colors
Lavender salutes
red, white, and blue of our flag.
Pride and gratitude.
Slavomir Rawicz planned and led a small group’s escape from a prison camp in the Siberian Gulag in 1941. About 9 months and 3000 miles later, the 4 survivors reached safety in India, having walked (with a little crudely improvised equipment and w/o maps) thru Siberian snow, the Gobi Desert, and high passes in the Himalayas. Details are in his book The Long Walk.
There are many sane and decent people in the USA, and some of them may have the grit and ingenuity of Slavomir Rawicz and his companions. In my own small way, I will try to help and will keep Yogi Berra’s Law in mind.
Having flown my flag inverted (as a protest) for a few days after the electoral disaster of 2016, I put it away. The meaning of inversion would no longer be clear. In the spring of 2017, I bought a new flag (larger and US-made) for occasions like July 4th, when flying the flag upright would not look so much like general approval of the way things are going. Ceding patriotic symbols to bigots and plutocrats would be a tactical error.
Maybe I should be doing other things today, but I came across the new reading of the poem. Despite not having burst mode on my camera, I then lucked into a good snapshot of my flag waving proudly. As usual, I teared up when a radio station played The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Tonight, I will both smile and yawn when neighborhood fireworks keep me up late. Tomorrow, the sane and decent people can return to the work of redeeming the promise of this day.
Mellow Curmudgeon 