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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
The red, white, and blue American flag is striking. But more important than its aesthetic appeal is what it symbolizes.
The “Stars and Stripes,” “Old Glory,” the flag of these United States of America, is a powerful expression of the country’s ideals.
I am one who appreciates what this flag, in various forms since the Second Continental Congress’s Flag Resolution adopted June 14, 1777, represents, even beyond the colors. It embodies principles of liberty, history, pitfalls and progress, and most of all, sacrifice. Admiring the flag, caring for it, believing in what it symbolizes is a form of patriotism.
This said, I do not believe the American flag is sacred, that it is or should be raised to the level of religious icon. Nor do I think that the “Star Spangled Banner,” adopted by the Navy in 1899 and considered a de facto National Anthem by the military branches during the 19th Century, then officially adopted by Congress March 3, 1931 for the United States, is some sort of holy expression.
The fact that I don’t consider the flag sacred makes it possible for me to understand why the United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), and reaffirmed in U.S. v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990), ruled that due to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is unconstitutional for a government (whether federal, state, or municipal) to prohibit the desecration of a flag, due to its status as "symbolic speech." Despite a number of attempts to ban the practice, desecration of the flag remains protected as free speech.
I don’t like desecration of the flag, indeed despise pictures of people burning the flag. I have never damaged the flag and would not recommend this to anyone for any reason. But if someone chooses to profane the flag to express some point of view, I consider this what it is, their freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is what matters most, not the flag that symbolizes that freedom. This is the paradox. Someone desecrating the flag is participating in a civil liberty the flag represents.
Something similar is occurring with “taking a knee,” the shorthand for not standing in respect during playing of the National Anthem. This has been an issue in American professional sports since 2016.
Back in 2016-2017, I did not take a position arguing football player Colin Kaepernick crossed a line when he took a knee during the playing of the National Anthem. I said I thought the way he and others chose to protest was ill-advised and I still think this, but I did not think then and don’t think now that an athlete’s freedom of speech should be denied because the way they choose to express it offends people.
This goes both ways. I don’t like Kaepernick and now entire professional sports teams taking a knee during the National Anthem, but I think it’s their liberty to do so. I also think it is fans’ liberty to choose not to watch this protest or not to agree with this act of protesting and/or the reason for the protest or to choose not to continue watching or supporting this professional sport. Fans, at least some of them, are likely to “vote with their feet” and walk away. So, while there are guaranteed freedoms of speech there may also be consequences.
By the same token though, I don’t think football quarterback Drew Brees should have been excoriated by players and celebrities alike for simply expressing his respect for the flag, something most of the country believed just a short time ago. He’s apologized multiple times since, as has his wife, and after a while it sounds like groveling. He was verbally attacked and his character impugned for daring to express his point of view, one that at first didn’t fit the prevailing acceptable narrative so was deemed “insensitive.”
The essence of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech guarantee is that all speech that is not coupled with acts of violence may be expressed – whether or not we like the speech or find if offensive or obnoxious or even vile.
So again, I appreciate and respect the American flag and what it represents.
I do not like it when the flag is intentionally disrespected, much less desecrated.
I don’t like it when athletes and teams “take a knee” during the National Anthem, but I believe it is their right as American citizens to express themselves.
For me, the ultimate is what that flag means.
- It means freedom of religion, speech, assembly, people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances, to keep and bear arms.
- It means constitutional civil liberties and later civil rights. It means “land of the free and home of the brave.”
- It means ““Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
- It means in terms of freedom the United States of America is “the last best hope of earth.”
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
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Lebanon’s flag is one of the most beautiful in the world. With its green Cedar of Lebanon tree, speaking to the country’s ancient and biblical history, surrounded by white for unity and peace and red for sacrifice, the flag stands as an important symbol for the Lebanese people. In the wake of the Beirut blast the flag has been prominently displayed throughout the country, often rising amidst the rubble. #ForBeirut
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attributionstatement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Brief audio on the Beirut Blast and SAT-7's initial response. SAT-7 Lebanon studios are just outside the blast radius so spared all but minimal damage. Now broadcasting to grieve together, lament, serve, and provide solace in spiritual truth.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
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A democratic republic cannot survive without aspirational, consensus ideals, comity, law and order, and social cohesion. What we've seen in America in the last few months, 1) in the throes of virus, 2) in the turbulence of unrest, is not simply infliction but insurgence.
Peaceful protest toward desired social change is a productive thing, a blessing of a free society. Mobocracy, enabled by elected officials, toward the boogieman du jour is a destructive thing, a scourge of a free society.
The cold coup d'etat some have attempted is dangerous in the extreme--to life, liberty, justice, truth, patriotism--something that can become hot with a flashpoint at any time.
What makes the USA is not beautiful topography but time-tested political ideals as enshrined in a constitutional system that has worked, however imperfectly at times, for more than 200 years.
No matter who is elected Nov 3, many will not simply be unhappy but inconsolable. This is the kind of flashpoint that concerns me. I don't want to live in a banana republic.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Woke culture produces bullies, people so self-righteously engaged with their holy list of issues that anyone disagreeing with them must be silenced. Welcome to America’s Brave New World.
“Woke” is shorthand for the slang “stay woke,” meaning to be aware of an issue, particularly so-called social justice issues. Wokeism is a new, sort of “religious” orthodoxy sweeping America.
Wokeism requires absolute adherence to its demands. And if you don’t agree, you’ll be publicly humiliated or defamed, professionally ruined, or otherwise dismissed, typically via social media attacks. For example, University of British Columbia Board Chairman had to resign after simply liking Trump Tweets. The Church will be next.
The woke culture or wokeism finds almost everything offensive, which means it wants to cancel seemingly everything. The cancel culture is a subset of Wokeism.
Wokeism uses bullying tactics, which in the name of tolerance and anti-racism are ultimately intolerant and often racist.
Like bullies everywhere, no amount of agreement, acquiescence, apologies, or groveling satisfies them, i.e. they “can’t get no satisfaction” because they really don’t want it. They want to quash anyone who does not salute their definition of the prevailing narrative, and they can’t win arguments on the merits so, again, silencing is their tool.
In wokeism, there is no forgiveness, only guilt the woke assign, and since they perceive themselves or those they purportedly represent as victims, everyone else is inherently and permanently guilty.
By now perhaps it goes without saying that wokeism is anti-American, meaning the point of view concludes that anything American is by definition racist and thus deplorable. Cue the ritual shaming, and also cultish kowtowing by political elites.
Ben Weingarten recently noted, “the National Museum of African American History & Culture has a section of its website entitled, ‘Talking About Race.’ One infographic there illustrates that values such as self-reliance, hard work and future orientation, institutions such as the nuclear family and a justice system based on English common law that enshrines private property rights, and practices such as using proper English and being polite are aspects of "white dominant culture"—a culture "where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal." Only after facing a backlash did the museum decide to pull down the infographic. But the site's ‘Talking About Race’ section remains, replete with similar materials, including, for example, an embedded video entitled, ‘Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo.’"
“According to the museum, some key identifying characteristics of ‘whiteness’…include possessing a ‘master and control nature,’ ‘aggressiveness and extroversion,’ ‘heavy value on ownership of goods, space, property,’ a taste in ‘steak and potatoes; ‘bland is best,' and ‘no tolerance for deviation from single god concept,’ so be sure to watch out for these signs when interacting with others to steer clear of white people.”
I’m not sure what logic brings one to a point that you could say, with a straight face, that a taste for steak and potatoes is somehow racial. But this is the level of racist absurdity to which some have gotten in their wokeness. And, of course, this is pretty mundane. To argue that a belief in a “single god concept” is somehow “White” is much more metaphysically and spiritually dangerous to the individual who buys into this satanic idea.
“Woke” culture focuses on social justice, anarchist, or leftist issues: microaggressions, police actions against Blacks, LGBTQ rights, poverty among Blacks, Native Americans, Latinos, attacks against Muslims or suspicion against them by associating them with terrorists, environmentalism.
For the record, I have no problem with genuine concerns for racial justice and equal opportunity, nor with social justice per se as it can be defined based upon a Christian worldview. My problem is with the underlying Marxism, associated critical race theory, and leftist philosophy represented in wokeism that wants to tear down the American system for the sake of historically demonstrated failed and dangerous ideas that undermine freedom and justice for all.
“Like wokeism, we are all a product of a world in the grip of a crisis of meaning. As a culture, we do not know where we’re going, or why we’re here, or what we’re supposed to be doing… Left unchecked, wokeism will bring us further into tribal division and the sense of disconnection that drives the meaning crisis.”
A democratic republic cannot survive without law and order, comity, social cohesion, and ideals. Wokeism stands against all of this, promoting disorder, disunity, social insurrection, and narrowly conceived anti-democratic values.
Problem is, the woke bullies are nihilistically angry. They can’t get no satisfaction and with their values they never will.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Patriotism has been taking it on the nose in the USA of late.
Social media and Big Media alike feature wall-to-wall coverage of rioters “dissing” the country, what it stands for (or rather, what they say it stands for), and “the system.” Tearing down statues of the nation’s founders, suggesting Mt. Rushmore should be destroyed because it’s on “stolen Native American land,” refusing to stand for the National Anthem, posting anti-American diatribes on social media, and burning flags are now par for the course.
Ironically, those expressing their displeasure are doing so in “a system” that gives them the blessing of freedom of speech, expression even, and assembly. No one tracks them down and puts them in jail for saying what they do – this even though many of these new, “woke” individuals try to “call out” and “cancel” anyone who disagrees with their point of view.
People sacrificed and died for our civil liberties, yet the agitators hold forth in mind-boggling lack of self-awareness, attacking the very ideals that protect their right to express themselves, however obnoxiously.
You’d be forgiven for thinking American patriotism is dead, or at least in its last throes.
Meanwhile, patriotism remains one of the most powerful emotions known to humanity, one of the world's most potent forces. It's something we feel more often than think about. All people around the globe feel it to one degree or another.
But no nation possesses the wealth of patriotic symbols found in the United States. No country boasts the number of patriotic songs—enough for entire concerts and then some—as the American nation state. “USA,” “USA,” “USA” is a powerful chant.
Yes, it is true, the United States is far from perfect, and sometimes we struggle to realize "liberty and justice for all." But no nation's history even remotely approaches America's attempt to believe in, fight to protect, and celebrate human freedom. No nation continues to attract immigrants from all over the world, not for the weather but for the freedom and opportunity America provides.
Truly felt and expressed American patriotism is about more than a love for the land and a love for the people. America is about ideals. Patriotism at its best is about what we believe, what we live for and what we are willing to die for.
American patriotism is about individual liberty, the land of the free and the home of the brave. It's about individual worth and dignity. It’s decidedly not about white supremacy, a recent revisionist idea masquerading as history.
American patriotism is about lex rex, “the law is king,” not rex lex, “the king is law.” No king, no president, no dictator or regime, no political entity is of greater eternal value than the single person—free to think, free to worship, free to work and own the fruits of one's labor, free to pursue opportunity. This is the national vision that gave meaning and dynamism to the first two hundred years of this nation's history.
America’s ideals are currently being trampled by a set of agitators variously motivated by legitimate concerns about racial justice, along with considerable illegitimate concerns for greed, control, power, class or race warfare, Marxism, Leftist ideology, hate.
Yet these ideals are precious concepts. They are what God intended human life to be. They are worthy of patriotism.
I sincerely hope that a new interest and support for American ideals will develop. I think they are as close to timeless as humanly constructed political philosophy can get. They work, and they have worked, with fits and spurts and improvements, for more than two centuries. We the people are imperfect. We have a checkered history, but we the people have moved toward ever greater applications of our founding, exceptional ideals, for all people of all races, ethnicities, and more.
I hope American patriotism is not dead. Indeed, to paraphrase Mark Twain, I hope the death of American patriotism is “greatly exaggerated.”
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.