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I seemed to notice more American flags of all kinds this year, and even saw a number of “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. Maybe I’m more sensitive to them as we continue in a multi-year war in Iraq, while we have an escalating situation which we never finished in the first place in Afghanistan, and watch other hot spots around the world unfold.

It’s also interesting because I became fascinated with our American Revolution a few years back, reading several biographies of our founding fathers, as well as, a number of other books about the history and birth of this nation. By no means does it make me an expert; however, it creates interesting thought processes when I see the flags and sense a meaning of Patriotism I think they are supposed to represent.

Thoughts that came to mind when I saw the flags were:

Do flag wavers who suggest I subscribe to their form of Patriotism really understand just how radical an idea and the behavior that created our government was?

Do they realize on the global stage we are behaving, as a country, very much like the British at the time of the revolution?

How do we preserve the questioning nature of our founding fathers in a time when questioning is looked down upon? After all they spoke up, without being asked, about perceived unfair treatment by their government

Hmmm . . . I began to think, will history repeat itself? Let’s see . . . we entered Iraq under false pretenses and have gotten mired in muck, we went in Afghanistan to rid them of the Taliban and stabilize the country and we didn’t – the Taliban are back, we are viewed as Imperialists by many in the world and when confronted we seem to behave with the same arrogance King George did leading up to the Revolution.

So what comes next?

In this election it will be interesting for me to hear what flag waving means to the candidates and what we can expect from them. Will it be a fall from world grace or a rebuilding of what I think the founding fathers really meant?

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine