For Some, an Unflagging Discomfort About Flying the Stars and Stripes
Earl Katz marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War in the 1960s. The 59-year-old philanthropist even raised funds for a Jane Fonda documentary in which more than 100 American war veterans confessed to atrocities in the southeast Asian conflict. On Wednesday, he raised an American flag outside his Marina del Rey home.
“I was a patriot then and I’m a patriot now,” said Katz. “The flag represents the best of what America can be. It’s not a right-wing symbol.”
Roger Lowenstein, a patriot too, disagrees. Lowenstein is not flying an American flag. Nor will he. “I grew up suspicious of the flag,” said the 58-year-old educator from Los Angeles who also protested against the Vietnam War. “It meant right-wing politics. It meant repression. It meant arrogance. It meant, ‘We’re the greatest.”’
In the wake of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, many Americans have rallied around or stood in line for the Stars and Stripes. A stark example: Within 48 hours of the crashes, Kmart sold 200,000 American flags, dwarfing sales for the same two days in the previous year. Other retailers have reported equally dramatic sales. American patriotism’s most recognizable emblem is suddenly everywhere--on shirt lapels, car antennas, homes, roadways, bridges, and draped from buildings.
Among the flag wavers is John Keaveney, 52, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and now runs an L.A. nonprofit group that serves homeless veterans. American flags adorn walls, parked trucks and office doors all over Keaveney’s office. “I wore my flag tie yesterday,” he said “And I’m sleeping with my flag pajamas on.”
For other Americans, deciding whether to display the flag hasn’t been so simple. On one hand, they want to show solidarity with Americans affected by the tragedy, but they don’t want to appear jingoistic. Some fear an excessive display of flags means an implicit endorsement of war.
“I feel confused and disconnected [from the flag],” said Jodie Evans, a 47-year-old Venice political activist. “Haven’t people learned anything in the last 30 years? Haven’t they been watching what America has been doing around the world? Instead of feeling humility and compassion, it seems like the flag is being flown to just arrogantly continue what we’ve been doing.”
Ira Glass, 42-year-old Chicago-based host of Public Radio International’s “This American Life,” is struggling with the issue. “The first day [after the attacks], it felt like waving a flag was an act of mourning,” he said. “But now that we’re going to war ... waving a flag feels like giving carte blanche to Congress and the president to do whatever. And I don’t believe that.” Nonetheless, Glass said, he has warned his girlfriend, who is Arab American and lives on Chicago’s North Side, that she ought to put up a flag since the other houses on her block are displaying them.
Some are making a compromise of sorts. Troubled by the nationalistic implications of red, white and blue, activist Barbara Dority of Seattle placed a white ribbon on a tree outside her house as a symbol of peace.
“I love my country,” said Dority, 52, executive director of the Washington Coalition Against Censorship. “Nothing allows people to commit atrocities more than the belief that God is on their side and that’s what we’re seeing here.”
Although its purpose is to promote national unity, the American flag has sharply divided Americans. During the Vietnam War, the flag-adorned bumper sticker adopted by hawks was “My Country: Love It or Leave It.” Doves tried to claim it, too, but with less success. When Yippie founder and antiwar activist Abbie Hoffman donned a flag shirt, he was arrested. (Many students of the 1st Amendment enjoy pointing out that around the same time, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans wore flag vests on TV with no adverse fallout.)
In recent years, intense battles have been fought regularly in Congress over the proposed adoption of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the flag from desecration. The argument that flag burning should be protected under the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech has prevailed, but barely. The House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly--and more than once--in favor of the amendment; by small margins, the Senate has always voted it down.
Carol Nackenoff a political science professor at Swarthmore College, sees two distinct currents swirling around the ubiquitous flag demonstrations today. The first includes those who wave the flag in defiance of the demoralization and fear that occurred after the attack.
“It’s saying we are not down. We are united,” said Nackenoff, who has researched the use of symbols in American politics. “We are not going to be destroyed by something like this. We are still proud.”
The other motivation, argues Nackenoff, is more bellicose and chauvinistic. “The flag, too, I think is being used as a symbol to say, ‘We’re going to get you,”’ she said. “It’s a Rambo statement.”
Some members of groups with troubled histories with the United States are ambivalent about the flag. At Universal Amphitheater Saturday night, comedian Margaret Cho railed against her own conflicted sentiments. She must now, she lamented, stand behind a president whose politics she loathes.
“God, nobody hates George Bush more than I do,” said Cho. But she said she felt compelled to wear the flag. She ended with a moment of silence for the victims and received three standing ovations.
Meanwhile, Japanese American artist Momo Nagano used the American flag to symbolize the emotional wounds inflicted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of her friends and neighbors were forced to leave their 30th Street neighborhood in Los Angeles and relocated to internment camps. In “American Families,” she wove the names of 200 people into a wall-sized flag, now on display at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles. “She was just sort of trying to make us look at our country,” museum spokesman Chris Komai said. “Our country isn’t perfect. It makes mistakes.”
And even though Japanese Americans were interned, many still retained a vigorous sense of patriotism, Komai said. “We were the group that was singled out and scapegoated for the attack on Pearl Harbor,” Komai said. “I’m lucky because my parents, who went through this horrendous experience of being incarcerated, never passed on their ambivalence. They pretty much put that camp experience on a back shelf and they didn’t tell us about that. Today, we believe in what the United States flag stands for.”
Even World War II veterans aren’t immune from wrestling with exhibiting Old Glory. Sherman Oaks resident Peter Roberts, 78, who was drafted into the Army after trying twice to enlist, doesn’t have an American flag in his house. “I’m not a flag waver by nature,” said Roberts, vice president of the American Humanist Assn. of Los Angeles. “I’m an American citizen and I support whatever our American government does, right or wrong.”
Many of those uncomfortable with unfurling the flag contend there are other ways to demonstrate their support for America. Attending candlelight vigils, donating blood, supplies or money and engaging in spirited public debate are also vital expressions of patriotism, they say.
Lowenstein offered one way to make a patriotic statement without waving a flag. To bolster the volatile stock market, he urged Americans to buy one share of stock in whatever company produces their favorite consumer product. “We’d be making an incredible statement,” he said. “The market would go up 500 points and our society would be saying that they can’t break our financial markets and institutions.”
The U.S. flag can be so freighted with meanings and counter-meanings that sometimes its intrinsic value is overrated, according to Jeffrey Prang, a 39-year-old West Hollywood city councilman who is displaying a flag in front of his home. “Just because you don’t fly a flag or carry the symbols of patriotism [doesn’t] make you less patriotic,” said Prang.
Just as the meaning behind the flag has changed since the Vietnam War when it was more identified with war support than dissent, so too it may change again. Now, the flag is experiencing a kind of honeymoon period, during which its display is thrilling and consoling. That includes not only the big cities and small towns of America, but a surprising number of countries around the globe.
If the American government’s response to the events of last Tuesday is deemed too drastic and harsh, however, the chance always exists that the flag may become a negative symbol. “If we engage in Rambo tactics,” said Nackenoff. “We may see the flag evolve into a symbol of hostility. And instead of public expressions of support and sympathy from around globe, we may see people burning the American flag in the streets.”
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Times staff writer Lisa Richardson contributed to this report.
