A flag is a symbol, a way to indicate one’s loyalty and devotion to whatever that flag represents. I’m a patriotic person, yet I’ve never been too attached to the American flag. I don’t believe that it needs to be treated with reverence as if it were some holy relic. After all, people use flags in advertisements, wear flags as boxer shorts – so how sacred can they be?
I appreciate our flag, the stars and the stripes, and I’ve covered my heart, sang national anthems, and pledged to it since an early age. It’s fun, it can be unifying, and I like it. It represents my country and I feel at home here. But I never really got emotionally upset if a protester “desecrated” the flag, or even burned it, which was a hot topic when I was in high school. It was a big outrage to some, but I couldn’t understand what bothered them so much. To me, okay, I might not be that angry at the whole country, but I get that people can be upset, and burning the flag seemed to me like a reasonably peaceful way to express distress. It’s a fundamental American value, in fact, to be able to express dissent.
Recently, I attended a Hands Off rally that was organized due to the distress many people feel about the direction the country is taking right now. Lots of issues were being protested – DOGE taking our data, defunding of science, public health at risk, a lashing out at education, and minority and LGBTQ+ rights, federal workers losing their jobs, the horrible cuts to benefits for needy people like SNAP and medicare in the big bill, and ICE raids leading to disappearing people with no due process. Some friends that attended were waving their American flags and attesting to how important that is to them. They didn’t think it was fair that anti-democratic oligarchs could steal the U.S. flag away from us. The way some conservatives use flags it almost can feel like a message of oppression to people with progressive ideas. You know the coal roller that has giant TRUMP and U.S. Flags rigged up in the truck bed? I believe a person driving through the streets with those symbols means to troll and intimidate others. But it’s not just those adamant supporters of our current president. I mean why is that flag at Macy’s so enormous? It’s a bit ridiculous. What are people trying to prove? But I agree with my friends: it’s nice to see American flags at a protest rally. Not declaring American exceptionalism, but rather the American tradition of hope for democracy.
Flags in Utah are a big deal, and this year certain flags – actually, I believe most flags — were outlawed from schools and other official government places. If I understand the law correctly, now only official state, national, and city flags can be displayed. And why? All because rainbow “pride” flags were appearing in too many places, and some people felt genuinely upset by them. These symbols were simply too offensive to these people, so offensive to them in fact that they insisted those flags be outlawed. Now to me that’s just weird. While I know some conservatives are rooted in traditional heterosexual ways, and are uncomfortable about gay people, get over it! It’s not okay to be so upset about people standing up for who they are and celebrating diversity. It’s okay for people to have gay pride. The flag is a symbol of acceptance and joy, and if you don’t love it, you don’t have to display or wave it. But please don’t trample over others who wish to express their ideas.
There are many details that I don’t get about Utah’s new law. I work at Utah State University, where we’re not allowed to put rainbow flags in outward-facing windows. We can display them in our private areas if we like, but not facing outside. Really? Also, it’s okay for a history teacher to display a confederate flag, or even a Nazi flag, due to historical significance, but somehow — despite the fact that the rainbow flag has been around as a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride since the 1970s — they are not considered historically significant. Perhaps I have this wrong? If so, please correct me.
So why am I thinking about flags now, and about Utah’s law regarding flags? As I drove north along interstate highway 15 yesterday, I noticed a sheriff’s truck. On the tailgate was a “thin blue line” U.S. flag. You know, the black and white American flag with a blue line through it, that is meant to indicate sacrifices the police make in their line of work. My neighbor flies one of those, and though I’ve heard disparaging comments about them from some people, these flags don’t bother me too much. I mean, I recognize that they were part of the “back the blue” over-reaction to the movement declaring that Black lives matter. But I believe that my neighbor doesn’t mean harm. He only means to share his love and appreciation for the police when he raises that flag. But when I saw the flag on the Sheriff’s truck, I wondered – is this breaking Utah’s law? It’s not an official flag after all. Moreover, I looked into it a bit, and learned that this flag was wielded by the white supremacists who demonstrated in the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally of 2017. And I learned that some police departments have banned it due to its association with racist, undemocratic ideologies.
I took a photo of the truck. Sadly it came out all blurry, so I can’t even call the appropriate sheriff’s department to question the legality of this flag displayed on a government vehicle in light of Utah’s new law. Why does this matter? I believe it’s a small symbol of a slow, decades-long trend, the increasing acceptance that police are somehow outside of our society. The militarization of police over my lifetime is part of that concern. I’ve witnessed an escalation of violence that I feel has actually decreased public safety. I would love to see a lot more investment in safety from a humanistic and practical perspective, like interventions to care for people when tensions rise. I favor investment in crime prevention over the policing, arresting, and prosecution of criminals. It’s far more cost effective, and criminal or not, everyone deserves to be treated humanely. No matter what, police should enforce and uphold the law, not be above it themselves, regarding flags or anything else.
We live in a time where flags as symbols are waved to express one’s viewpoint. I am happy to see Mexican flags and Canadian flags carried by immigrants and natural-born citizens to represent their heritage and to stand up against the current regime’s authoritarian obsessions. I’m bracing myself to endure the flags used in conjunction with imagery of intimidation for Trump’s military parade on June 14th. And I’m hopeful that protestors will wave the good old American flags at their own No Kings Day rallies. Whatever one’s personal intention or interpretation of a flag, it’s a part of our speech, and speech is supposed to be protected in our country. So I am outraged that in Utah conservative lawmakers have passed laws about flags, quashing the speech of those they do not favor, while apparently turning a blind eye to the speech of those they do.
I’d like to know what others think about this.
And please enjoy this song, which my dad quoted when I was a kid at the one and only time that I remember him giving a talk in church. It was written in a different time, but it’s as relevant as ever.
Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore
© John Prine
While digesting Reader’s Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I’d tell her how good I feel.
Chorus:
But your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.
They’re already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don’t like killin’
No matter what the reason’s for,
And your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.
Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
“If you join the Christmas club
We’ll give you ten of them flags for free.”
Well, I didn’t mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife’s forehead.
Repeat Chorus:
Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn’t see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I’ll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said…
“But your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.
We’re already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don’t like killin’
No matter what the reason’s for,
And your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.”