Weaponizing The Flag

Combining another of his egregiously un-American attacks on the First Amendment with yet another dose of his disgusting demagoguery and divisiveness, Donald Trump recently proffered a veritable buffet of options as to what/who it is that National Football League players are "disrespecting" when, using his own classy, presidential verbiage, these "sons of bitches" who should "be fired" #TakeTheKnee during the pre-game playing/singing of the national anthem.

It wasn't that he couldn't make up his mind as to what/who it is that the players are "disrespecting"--to pretend that Trump gives this or any issue that much thought is laughable. He is not, to put it kindly, a critical thinker. He is, to put it bluntly, a reflexive, visceral whirlwind of unleashed id for whom the unqualified agreement, unconditional affirmation and raucous applause of his shrinking tribe--now down to 32%--is as essential to his fragile sense of self as mother's milk or some variation thereof is to an infant. And for whom any hint of disagreement or criticism unleashes a raging sewer of anger worthy of comparison to one of J.K. Rowling's Obscurials--though, to be clear, Obscurials did not have access to a Twitter account.

The trotting out of various possibilities as to what/who it is that the players are "disrespecting" was, instead, emblematic of Trump's penchant for creating/manipulating a divisive issue (most often one with racial/ethnic undertones) and then finding its sweet spot--the word or phrase that gins up the most outrage and grievance in his sad, shrinking and clueless base of #PerpetuallyOutraged and #PerpetuallyAggrieved white voters.

Hence, the NFL players who decided to exercise their First Amendment rights and #TakeTheKnee in protest against racial/social injustice were alternately characterized by #TheManWhoWouldBeEmperor as being "disrespectful" to (1) The Flag, (2) The National Anthem, (3) The Country, (4) First Responders, (5) Law Enforcement Personnel, (6) Military Vets, and (7) Military Personnel Currently Serving.

Given more time, one wonders if he would have utilized those tiny twitter fingers to imperiously announce that those who #TakeTheKnee had also "disrespected" (1) Kindergarten Teachers, (2) Santa Claus, (3) the Easter Bunny, (4) Moms, (5) Apple Pie and/or, in a nod to his heinously hypocritical evangelical herd, perhaps even (6) The Almighty Himself/Herself.

But, with the clock running and an ever-lengthing list of Gold Star families and fellow Republicans to demean and degrade, #TheMoron--as a courtesy to the sitting Secretary of State as well as the tender sensibilities of some readers, I have deleted the adjectival expletive used by Mr. Tillerson to modify the noun "moron"--finally settled on #TheFlag as that which is primarily being "disrespected" by NFL players when they #TakeTheKnee.

THE FLAG

October 16 marked the 49th anniversary of the day that two African-American Olympians--sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos--stood on the winners' podium at the Mexico City Olympics to receive their respective gold and bronze medals for having finished first and third in the men's 200-meter finals. Each wore, on his track jacket, an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge. So did the silver medal recipient, Peter Norman, a courageous, young, white Australian sprinter.

As the national anthem was played and the flag of the United States raised, both Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and raised a black-gloved fist.

The photograph capturing that moment has rightly become iconic, as has the moment and the act itself. For, without uttering a word, Smith and Carlos made one of the most visible, powerful and controversial statements of latter 20th-century American history about our country's continuing failure to live up to its promise of full equality for all people.

Smith and Carlos were immediately--and, predictably-- subjected to personal vilification, a variety of threats and accusations that they had disrespected their country, their national anthem, and #TheFlag. The same vilification, threats and accusations have been directed at black athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Colin Kaepernick and present NFL players when, in the ensuing years, they have used their athletic successes as a platform from which, like Smith and Carlos, to hold the country accountable for its unwillingness to rise to the ideals enshrined in its own Constitution.

So, the question is begged: Were Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell and the rest disrespecting the American flag? Was Colin Kaepernick disrespecting #TheFlag when he first knelt on the sideline during the playing of the national anthem? Are NFL players who now #TakeTheKnee disrespecting #TheFlag?

No.

#TheFlag of the United States of America is a powerful symbol. It points beyond itself to the values, ideals and promises--many of them still not realized, still not fulfilled--that lie at the core of the American Experiment.

But #TheFlag does not incarnate those values, ideals and promises. It symbolizes them. It points beyond itself to them.

When we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we acknowledge that #TheFlag "stands for" our Republic. However, in doing so, we also acknowledge that #TheFlag is not the Republic itself. It "stands for" the vision of a Republic that, by embodying those values, ideals and promises, becomes, in actuality, "one nation...indivisible...with liberty and justice for all."

Get my drift?

In and of itself, separated from those aspirational values, ideals and promises, separated from the inspirational vision of a Republic that can honestly boast of being "indivisible...with liberty and justice for all," #TheFlag is just a piece of cloth and #Patriotism an empty sentiment.

Exercising their First Amendment rights, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Colin Kaepernick and present NFL players who #TakeTheKnee were/are protesting the fact that the promises and dreams to which that flag points have not yet been fulfilled or realized for all. For some, yes. For all, no.

They were/are not disrespecting #TheFlag. They were/are patriotically holding it up before all of America as a mirror and hoping that we had/have the individual and national character to see where we have fallen short in securing those constitutional guarantees for all. And hoping that we had/have the individual and national character to not only admit our shortcomings but to use that admission as a launching pad for demanding equal justice, equal freedoms and equal opportunities for all--that for which #TheFlag ultimately stands and that to which #TheFlag ultimately points.

After all, since when is it unpatriotic to hold one's country accountable for not, by using every constitutional means necessary, exposing and stifling those elements that prevent it from achieving its self-proclaimed destiny?

Smith, Carlos, Ali, Russell, Kaepernick et al have given #TheFlag its proper due. They have, at great personal and professional risk, paid a heavy price to remind us that respect for #TheFlag has less to do with "standing for it" than with understanding and committing oneself to "what it stands for."

DONALD TRUMP

On the other hand...

Donald Trump has, in his response to the NFL players whose chose to #TakeTheKnee, shown a disrespect for #TheFlag that is not only contemptible but beneath the dignity of a United States president.

#TheFlag of the United States of America should never be used as a political weapon against anyone, even and especially the citizens it represents. It is soiled when a president weaponizes it and uses it to attack American citizens exercising their First Amendment right to demand that our country live up to its ideals. It is soiled when a president wraps himself in it and, thusly encased, engages in a rhetorical exercise whose intent is not to unite but divide. It is soiled when a president figuratively holds it aloft and appeals not to our brightest angels but to our darkest ones.

Donald Trump simply saw an issue he could manipulate to his political advantage per a shrinking base of voters and made #TheFlag the centerpiece of his demagogic schtick. In reality, he doesn't give a rodent's backside about "respecting" or "disrespecting" #TheFlag. For him, it is nothing but a prop.

Remember that this is a man who, instead of condemnation, offered a big, wet kiss to Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists and other assorted societal dregs in Charlottesville who were carrying American flags accessorized with swastikas sewn into the middle. Many of them, he said, were "fine people."

My father and my stepfather were both World War II veterans who saw combat against Axis powers. Let me assure you that they would have disagreed with this president about racists and bigots carrying swastika-branded American flags being "fine people."

Bigly.