Grand Old Flag

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BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be progressively patriotic? How do we celebrate a love of country in a way that feels authentic, in a way that honors the strides we’ve made and recognizes those we still need to make? Remembering our history is a good start—acknowledging the power the American idea held for those who came before us, and working to keep it alive for those who will follow. I can proudly wave the flag in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, Margaret Sanger and Susan B. Anthony, Samuel Gompers and Cesar Chavez.

I can also be an unabashed patriot for my neighborhood and happily pledge my allegiance to folks down the street who pitch in when one of us is in need. And I’ll wave the flag gladly to celebrate our all-American right to be left alone by government, and for our free press, and for the privilege of challenging our elected representatives.

I’d also argue that patriotism does not need to focus only on national holidays. I rather like thinking of our annual May Day Festival in south Minneapolis as a patriotic occasion. Here we are, 10 or 20 thousand souls basking in the first marvelous days of spring and espousing all sorts of lefty, anarcho-pagan beliefs, and I’d like somebody, just once, to unfurl an American flag and stubbornly hold court about how it’s a pretty great country that doesn’t send out the National Guard to shut this thing down.

Why not unfurl the flag next time you march against some local injustice, reveling in the rights our nation bestows on dissenters? Why not belt out "America the Beautiful" next time you picket in support of an environmental or labor cause? It might remind you and your comrades of the shoulders you’re standing on.

Rather than blind conformity to the current regime, patriotism could just as easily mean openly embracing the progressive ideals upon which the nation was founded—corny old 18th-century concepts like liberty, equality, justice, and freedom—and attaching them to the issues we care about. Fair wages for service employees, equal opportunity for immigrants, and affordable housing for the homeless can all be seen as patriotic efforts.

NO MATTER WHERE WE focus our patriotic efforts, we first need to shed the conceit that tells us that any identification with the flag is just frivolous symbolism that links us with George W. Bush, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. That is not true.

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