-Caveat Lector-
http://truthout.org/docs_03/040403A.shtml
Our Flag, Too
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 3 April 2003
The residents of an unassuming house, tucked away in a quiet corner of a small
New England college campus, have
found themselves at the center of a disturbing fight for the basic right to
express their opinion as Americans.
Seven students at 44 Howard Street on the Wheaton College campus, located in the
rural community of Norton,
Massachusetts, have discovered, with suddenness and fury, how difficult it is
today to speak your mind in a nation
divided by war.
It started on the day the Bush administration took this nation to war in defiance
of the international community and
with little, if any, justifiable rationale. The American attack upon Iraq,
fraught with all the terrors of American
and civilian casualties, spiraling regional hostilities and the surety of
reciprocal attacks here at home, convinced
these students that their beloved country was in grave danger. The leadership of
this nation, and the deadly course
they chose, motivated the seven in this small house to make a large statement of
disapproval.
And so, on that day, the young men and women of 44 Howard hung an American flag
upside-down outside of their house.
There is no question but that this is a loaded symbol. Generation after
generation of Americans have saluted this
flag, served under it, died under it, and have been wrapped in it when finally
delivered to the darkness of the
earth or the depths of the ocean. The flag represents, for many Americans, all
that is great and true and noble
about this nation; it is a snapshot of our idealized hopes and dreams for the
country we are and the country we wish
to be. Of course, these kids were asking for trouble by doing this. People do
not react rationally when confronted
with an American flag flying in anything other than an upright, orderly fashion.
44 Howard got trouble, in spades.
Some days after placing the flag on their house in this manner, a truckload of
local men pulled up to the front
door. This took some doing; the house is not located on any road easily
accessible by the main streets of Norton,
but is buried in the campus near the central quadrangle. Six men, whose ages
ranged from between forty to fifty
years old, stormed into the house while two of the residents were there. The
residents locked themselves in a room
and called campus security, while them men crashed through the house, pounding on
bedroom doors and yelling, "Come
out, you cowards!" It was clear from their actions that these men intended
violence.
Rocks have been thrown through the windows of 44 Howard. Death threats have been
telephoned to the house and left
on answering machines. Cars from the town of Norton have constantly driven
passed the house with passengers
screaming threats and insults. A dead fish was strapped to the front door,
symbolizing a death threat as per the
movie 'The Godfather.' The harassment grew to such a fevered intensity that the
residents of the house were ordered
by campus security to leave the premises for three days, because their safety
could not be guaranteed.
As of this printing, there has not been one arrest made in these matters by the
Norton police.
One might feel that the people who have so vigorously attacked the seven Wheaton
students have a moral basis for
their actions, as it appears on the surface to be a case of righteous and
patriotic citizens defending the American
flag from desecration. This is not, in fact, the case, because hanging an
American flag upside-down is not an act
of desecration.
It is an act of desperation, and indeed, of patriotism.
The seven students of 44 Howard have family and friends serving in the war at
this moment. They do not wish to see
their loved ones killed in an irresponsible act of military adventurism, nor do
they wish to see harm done to their
own country because of this, nor do they wish to see the innocents of Iraq
slaughtered in the mayhem. This is the
very definition of patriotism: the defense of family, friends, country and life
itself.
The basic message behind an upside down flag is, "Distress. Send Help." The
symbolism of the reversed flag began in
the nautical realm; sailors at sea in distress would fly the flag upside-down
before abandoning ship, or as a signal
to other passing ships that they were in dire need of help. More recently, this
symbol was used by troops in the
field in Vietnam, who flew the flag in reverse to signal their distress over the
manner in which they were being
used by their commanders and political leaders.
In 2001, the use of the American flag as a symbol of distress was codified in
law. U.S. Code, Title 4, Chapter 1,
Section 8(a) reads as follows:
The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of
dire distress in instances of extreme
danger to life or property.
The war in Iraq presents a dire threat to not only the American soldiers and
Iraqi civilians engaged in the
fighting, but to American citizens on the home front who will doubtlessly come
under terrorist attacks in
retribution for the assault upon Iraq. Furthermore, the very fabric of our
national ideal is in mortal danger from
this war; when said attacks do occur in America, the strictures of Martial Law
and the Patriot Act will bring to an
end 227 years of Constitutional rule in America.
Distress. Send help.
Combine the clear language of Title 4 with the unambiguous wording of the First
Amendment of the Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The men and women of 44 Howard are well within their rights, and well within the
strictures of common American
morality, to use the flag as they have. The wretched irony in all of this is
that those men who stormed into that
house to do violence to these students are, in fact, acting in a manner that
would make Saddam Hussein proud. In
the guise of defending freedom, they would deny it with clenched fist in a home
invasion as disturbing as anything
done by the worst stormtroopers in all of history.
There is another irony here, codified in corollary sections of Title 4:
The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.
- Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8(d)
The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.
It should not be embroidered on
such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise
impressed on paper napkins or boxes or
anything that is designed for temporary use and discard.
- Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8(i)
Those patriotic men who saw fit to break into a private home in order to attack
the young men and women who live
there might, next time, turn their energies upon every cell phone company, every
car dealership, a number of
clothing manufacturers, every store that sells American flag paper napkins, and
all of the myriad businesses from
sea to shining sea that whore out the flag to sell their goods in a manner
totally in contravention with the
strictures of Title 4.
But that would be hard. Seven youths are a far easier target for violent desires
wrapped, as it were, in the flag
of patriotic zeal.
There is more to all of this than different interpretations of the symbolism of
the flag. This is about the very
definition of patriotism. It has become all too clear of late that Americans are
required to "Support The Troops."
This has become a euphemism for supporting the war. If you do not support the
war, you do not support the troops
and are therefore un-American and possibly a terrorist. This is a scurrilous
skewing of rhetoric with one purpose
alone: To intimidate dissenters into silence.
Let it be known that those who stand against this attack on Iraq are the brothers
and sisters, the wives and
husbands, the friends and family and countrymen of those currently serving. When
a man or woman puts on the uniform
and swears the oath of service, they are taking a leap of faith that their lives
will not be spent to no purpose by
those who would lead this nation. Let it be known that those who stand against
this war believe these men and women
in uniform currently serving in Iraq have had that faith betrayed. Those who
stand against this war also stand with
these men and women, and demand that their blood not be spilled in vain. If that
is not "Supporting The Troops,"
then those words have no meaning at all.
Perhaps the students at 44 Howard should have known better. Perhaps it is not
wise to use so powerful a symbol in
so tense a time. Those who would attack these young men and women for their
beliefs and their speech, however, miss
the central issue. We who stand against this war are also Americans. We also
love this country. We also honor our
veterans. We see our beloved nation charging into the darkness day by day and
hour by hour, and no intimidation can
break us of our need to speak out loudly and vehemently about this.
It is our flag, too.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times best-selling author of two books - "War
On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter)
available now from Context Books, and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence,"
available in June 2003 from Pluto Press.
He teaches high school in Boston, MA.
Scott Lowery contributed research to this report.
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