My Navajo friend, a well-educated former Catholic priest, tells me that his family's stories include many in which his ancestors were led to believe that if they stand around the flagpole when the federal troops come in they would be safe. A ploy, of course, to get them all in one place where they could be easy targets.
The flurry of flags after 9/11 struck me as belligerant, Pavlovian and rude -- if not commercial. The World Trade Center and the Pentagon as military targets aren't necessarily the American people, are they? In many ways the American people are innocent, dumbfounded bystanders, rallying around a flag believing there's some safety in it.
Proyect's remarking about flag pins stopping conversations makes me wonder if the peace pin on my own lapel halts conversations the same way. I wear it because I think it's important that people see something other than flags, that there's another side.
Dan Scanlan
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