PATRIOTISM

This Flag Does Not Belong to Fascists

America belongs to all of us

The American flag, as seen near my house. Surrounded by the dark, waving toward the right. (Photo by Harrie Teheux)

Last night, walking our dogs, my husband and I remarked on the beauty of a boulevard lined with American flags. And I remembered that this flag does not belong to fascists. It belongs to us.

Admit it — when you see a flag attached to a pickup truck, your first thought is not that the driver must be a patriotic American. You probably think politics before patriotism.

You instinctively mistrust that person … with good reason.

But the flag is not theirs. It is ours.

My husband takes a walk before work every day, and one day he came back with this shot of the flag as glimpsed between two buildings.

I immediately asked him for a copy. It seemed to me to symbolize the dark place America occupies right now.

The flag waves toward the right. It’s surrounded by darkness.

But then, a little later in the spring, he took another picture of the flag. It had begun getting lighter for his early walks, and this time the flag, waving toward the left, is in light.

The symbolism is a little crude but I’ll take it. All the old cliches apply: There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The wind has changed…