Put Out No Flags

The Nation ^ | September 20, 2001 | Katha Pollitt

[Kenyon]

Put Out No Flags

My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. She tells me I'm wrong--the flag means standing together and honoring the dead and saying no to terrorism. In a way we're both right: The Stars and Stripes is the only available symbol right now. In New York City, it decorates taxicabs driven by Indians and Pakistanis, the impromptu memorials of candles and flowers that have sprung up in front of every firehouse, the chi-chi art galleries and boutiques of SoHo. It has to bear a wide range of meanings, from simple, dignified sorrow to the violent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has already resulted in murder, vandalism and arson around the country and harassment on New York City streets and campuses. It seems impossible to explain to a 13-year-old, for whom the war in Vietnam might as well be the War of Jenkins's Ear, the connection between waving the flag and bombing ordinary people half a world away back to the proverbial stone age. I tell her she can buy a flag with her own money and fly it out her bedroom window, because that's hers, but the living room is off-limits.

(The rest of the article is at The Nation site.)

[Kenyon]

Pitiful.

[JohnHuang2]

Pitiful.

Treacherous.

[Howie66]

You could learn something from your daughter.

[Redcloak]

Well, judging by the 13-year old, we can conclude that her condition isn't genetic.

[Reagan Man]

The teenage kid has more courage and brains then her Mom does. Incredible!

God Bless America

[ladyinred]

Well, this is another Anti American idiot giving an opinion that should be kept to his/herself!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Forgot the closing tag.

</BARFALERT>

[SmartBlonde]

Maybe you should forward this to Chris Matthews and remind him about Christina van den Heuvel - he ALWAYS refers to her as 'GREAT'. Makes me sick!!!

[CatoRenasci]

This parent is obviously unfit. The child should be removed to a foster home immediately.

[georgiegirl]

I've always marveled how children are oftentimes wiser than their liberal parents.

[Drew68]

Forgot the closing tag.

The Nation is the source of this tripe. That is all you need to know.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

If anyone has a nice, well trained dog, please snap a photo of the dog peeing on a copy of this rag. I want to post it everywhere. Thanks.

[Howie66]

By the use of the word: "parents", you are making a dangerous assumption. My money says that this little girl has no clue are to her paternal parentage.......

[SEA]

Proof that there's hope for the next generation.

[CarolAnn]

"If anyone has a nice, well trained dog, please snap a photo of the dog peeing on a copy of this rag. I want to post it everywhere. Thanks."

I have a 90# Weimeraner that I could get to take a crap on one. Only problem is, I'm not spending my $$$ on that rag. Besides, the county I live in is so conservative, I'd have to drive about 40 miles to get one.

[JohnHuang2]

Great suggestion.

Retrospectively, van den Heuvel was one of the Cold War era's biggest Pro-Soviet apologists.

She is the quintessential ANTI-AMERICAN.

[linn37]

its terrible that her daughter has to explain this to her,the poor thing

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Awww, just this once,,,I would never ask you to read it...

[Critter]

She's a commie bitch, and should be deported. Her daughter can come stay here. My daughter wants a big sister. :)

[mafree]

My situation is the reverse. When I was 14 I didn't want to pledge allegiance to the flag at school and even participated in a walkout to support another student at my high school who was suspended for not pledging the flag. (Yes, this was a long time ago)

Anyway, when I told my father later what I'd done he said I shouldn't have because, despite the imperfections in America, that was our flag and he, along with my uncles, fought under it in the Korean War.

I was taken aback because my father was basically a black nationalist and had more or less raised us that way. I was surprised to hear him express any kind of patriotism.

Well, I still refrained from pledging to the flag but now am prepared to do so again at the first opportunity since 9/11. Maybe Pollitt will turn around too someday.