A Flag's Purpose

This fourth of July, in between the makeshift m80s and Costco hotdogs, we should all take a moment to examine why anyone is proud. Why is the National anthem important? Why is the flag important? Isn't it just a song and colorful chunk of fabric? Isn't patriotism itself a little dated? Some people would even say it's racist (because everything is) and symbolic of white supremacy. It's common to say that the flag, the anthem, and patriotism itself mean different things to different people. It would also be common to just lay out what those things mean to me. But that would be boring. I think there is a fundamental, visceral reason these things are important and that most people feel it, even if they don't understand why. By the way, those people who cry racist at everything need to go sit down and fill their face holes with a veggie burger. I hear BeyondMeat is pretty great.

Patriotism does serve a very real purpose to society and one that many people don't even think of at all, much less on a regular basis. Before we get to that reason though, it's a good idea to put things in context. It wasn't the newest context until days ago but it's been on my mind for a while. Yes, I'm talking about the Kaepernick saga. It's been a few years since it all began but something had kept nagging at me about the whole thing. OK... A few things have been nagging at me, but one gripe at a time.

During the summer of 2016, the country was shocked by what seemed to be a constant barrage of police shootings involving mostly unarmed black men, many of them in their teens. I saw every single video of every incident. Every time a new story broke, my co-workers and I would gather around the YouTube and try and find the least talked over, most raw footage we could. Then we'd attempt to figure out for ourselves what was murder or mistake. Fortunately, we all understood what was happening from the media's perspective.

These shootings were hot news and there was an obvious, cynical air about how everything seemed to be happening all the sudden and all at once. I'd like to say that the murder of an unarmed teenager was this exceptional thing that needed attention immediately because it was so rare and appalling. That is not the case. The fact is, those same events are still happening now and happened before the media blitz, with similar regularity. It's just that people cared for a while when they didn't before. Now the story has been "played out" or whatever apathetic media term they use to describe kids being shot as "no longer newsworthy"

Without getting into the details of these tragic events, what I witnessed were three nearly distinct categories of awful: 1) straight up murder 2) some jackass trying to get himself killed and 3) some combination of the two or just confusing enough we couldn't figure it out. That breakdown meant that at least two-thirds of every event we watched was either murder or questionable. It's for that reason I completely agreed with Colin Kaepernick's message. It's his method I and many others had a problem with.

During his third preseason game of 2016, the freshly benched and afroed quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers decided to make his voice heard. He did it without a sound and immediately caught everyone's attention, just as he wished. By kneeling instead of standing for the national anthem he sent up his message of protest on behalf of all the people he had witnessed gunned down by police officers across the country. I had mixed feelings.

The backlash was immediate and passionate. First came the early accusations that veterans were being disgraced. That to disrespect the anthem and by extension, the flag was an affront to all who had died for our country. It's a valid argument on its surface but it's still a strawman. Kaepernick appeared to have a clear cause and none of them involved disrespecting soldiers who died to protect our freedoms. Although, suggesting the entire country and its law enforcement was racist didn't help. The people accusing him of disrespecting veterans avoided Kaepernick's core message and some even presumed the worst intentions. It's not a healthy way of discourse to be sure, but I think there was a deeper reasoning behind the reaction that's hard to pin down. Aside from calling everyone racist.

Of course, Kaepernick had his supporters and this is where it gets really weird. Over the next few months, a debate would rage about police brutality. Did we need more sensitivity training? More training in general? Was the lack of outreach by local police departments eroding public trust? Could we gain that trust back? Do beat cops on neighborhood patrols make a difference?

I'm kidding. All of those things were mentioned for about 3 seconds in the national media. In following this story closely, I counted one article and two radio shows addressing the issues Kaepernick attempted to bring up. Instead, we received a nationwide debate on protests, who gets to protest, how to protest, the right to protest and who has the right to protest. Also, something about protesting. At the peak of this travesty were the children on the sidelines of their local school events, getting their activism on during the national anthem. They took knees. They raised fists. They knelt and locked arms. Finally, in the most egregious case of one-ups-manship I've ever seen, one group of kids laid down in a row on the damn sideline. All in support of Colin Kaepernick. His detractors were accusing him of shameless self-promotion and his supporters fanatically supporting his right to protest. His cause? Wait, there was a cause? This was my WTF moment. The message of fair policing had been totally overrun by the method. From zero to a hundred in 3 seconds, this movement went off the rails. Then came the moment of clarity.

What sparked this insane non-recognition of police brutality wasn't that someone unlikeable brought it up. It wasn't the fact it was a famous football player who did, and the media's sensationalism was only partly to blame. Mainly, it was the fact that the target of the protests was unity itself.

Humans are tribal creatures. That's not a knock on any one culture, of course. All cultures are afflicted with this and that's the point of having a shared unity that transcends tribalism. In the United States, we enjoy the world's cultures in a vast mix of ethnicities, religions, lifestyles, races and...orientations. Yes, furries are people too. We are 320 million strong of the most diverse population on the planet. There is nowhere on earth that comes close. The only two larger countries are India and China, both highly xenophobic and homogeneous societies. The ones next down the list are predictably monocultural nations until we hit Germany, at a whole 83 million. The UK and France trail close at around 66 million. Even in those cases of modern Euro-diversity, they struggle with multiculturalism as a practice. They have it locked down on paper, sure. But what makes a multicultural (let alone free) society successful isn't good intentions. It's common unity.

That's where our patriotism comes in handy. We may be a mismatched melting pot of multifaceted backgrounds but we have a common identity, and it's that which binds us together as a nation. Without it, we are just a collection of sometimes incompatible ideas and values. It's the shared values of freedom and self-determination that bring us together and allow us to rise above our differences. Of course, there are those who say that humanity is the ultimate tribe and we should respect and honor all cultures. That we should embrace the idea we exist under one planet-wide collective. Except, I say eating dogs is wrong. I say child labor is wrong and theocracy is wrong. You can disagree. In this country, you have that freedom. We all have the freedom to oppose one another's beliefs. That's OK. However, while we may disagree on any number of values and what makes us decent people, we are supposed to agree that we are Americans first. That is the ultimate purpose of patriotism. It's the last fall back position. When we can't agree on anything else. When we come to an impasse on how to raise our children or fund social programs or when to wage war, we can start with a rally at the flag. We can start with the recognition that we're all in this together and then move forward with mutual respect. Having the opportunity (or excuse) for mutual respect is the key component. That's what the flag and her patriotic trappings provide us. Even in the most cynical view, at least there's an excuse to be civil. Even if it's just a moment to catch our breath.

Conversely, we can pretend that reason is some kind of magic equalizer that binds us all in harmony,....so long as we all agree on what's reasonable. That's a sweet idea and it looks great in concept. Realistically, this has never been a thing and will never be a thing because human beings always disagree on what's reasonable (thank God). It's why we have different cultures and borders to separate them. In a culture as complex as ours, reason alone isn't going to get it done. We may understand the same laws but when half the country thinks the other half are morons with evil intent, only a sense of common unity can keep the fabric of our society from unraveling.

In the current political climate, there are plenty of those who would argue that the time for conversation is over and that our common unity is dead. Those people have no plan. If you ask them (and I have) what the hell we're supposed to do moving forward if not debating the issues, the answers range from hyperbolic gibberish to "I don't know". Although it's a fantasy of many on all sides of the political stripe, we are not going to have another great war of attrition in this country. That's not to say political violence won't continue to escalate until people come to their senses though.

We'll continue to see sniping on Twitter by fringe wackos and the vocal minority and we'll continue to struggle with corporations bending knees to manufactured outrage. By the way, special thanks to Nike for keeping this article fresh and relevant by way of their cowardice. I guess the US flag isn't going to feature on their products anymore...It's also entirely possible that we'll begin to see more condemnation of the US flag as a symbol of the worst our country has been and the worst it has to offer. This isn't just stupid. Composition fallacy, describing the whole of a thing by its one facet or failing is merely stupid.

To apply this logical fault to the very symbol of our one shared identity is absolutely dangerous as well as stupid. It's dangerously stupid.

We have a unique society that is supposed to hold freedom and liberty above all else. Above personal identity, above religious ideology and above government itself. The US flag has never been and will never be a symbol of the US government or its administration at the time. Because the government is of the people, for the people, and by the people, our flag will always transcend politics to represent our common freedom as a people. That's what it's there for. It's the very foundation of our civility and the basis of our unity. It's the last fallback position we have as a society. If we are to survive our current and future "culture wars" we'll need a place of reprieve. We'll need a rallying point to come together and catch our breath, calm the fuck down and figure out how to move forward. And we will move forward. A vast and amazing collection of humanity, united under one flag.