ThinkingBlue: I DON'T FLY MY AMERICAN FLAG ANYMORE

But first, a few words from George Galloway on London's terrorist attack of July 7, 2005
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British Antiwar MP George Galloway:
"London Has Reaped Blair's Involvement in Iraq"
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I DON'T FLY MY FLAG ANYMORE!

I use to fly the flag on every national occasion... and was proud to do so... I haven't flown the flag since MARCH 2003 when we, a so called peaceful nation, attacked a sovereign state and for what... FOR NOTHING...!

I felt we should all feel a strong sense of unity on 911... WE WERE ATTACKED! Then something more horrible happened... A WARMONGER AND HIS HENCHMEN, WENT TO WORK AND DID MORE HARM TO OUR UNITY AND WELL BEING, THAN ANY TERRORIST COULD EVER DO...They told lies and bent truths to preempt a war on a country that was totally without the ability to harm us in any way... Since then, America (Sadly, the name as well as the government) joined the band of Bush's so called "evil axis" nations, in my opinion, and the name has now become synonymous with SHAME...

I don't feel pride in displaying this symbol any longer... and that is the real SHAME...

My biggest wish before I die is to one day feel honor again for the only country I know... the one I was born in... but I feel it is a wish that will not be granted for me...

I won't throw my flag away or burn it...it will stay in my shed collecting cobwebs... come to think of it...the cobwebs speak a louder protest to what this fascist, neocon government has done to our nation (THEY HAVE FORSAKEN IT)... than any burning could ever do... Thanks... Thinkingblue

PS: Below is an essay that reiterates everything I have just said but more so. We are experiencing today a somber time in our nation but we have lived through similar hardships before and hopefully someday we "the people of the United States of America" will overcome and feel dignity and pride for our country once again.

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The Promise by BOHICA

Sat Jun 18th, 2005 at 06:25:55 PDT

During grade school, my classmates and I recited the pledge of
allegiance to the flag every morning. Did we understand what
allegiance meant? Did we understand "indivisible?" Probably not, but
the phrase, "liberty and justice for all", could at least be
understood as something that everyone was entitled to. As we
progressed through those formative years we learned what those words
stood for. We learned the meaning of liberty and justice and Republic.
These were our first lessons in civics. As we entered high school we
had to memorize the first part of the Declaration of Independence
where it says, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Diaries ::
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We then moved on to learn the preamble to the Constitution, one of
the most enduring statements of all times. "We the People of the
United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and
our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America." This was our second lesson in civics. Being
young and sheltered from the real word, we believed this was what
America was all about; liberty, justice and equality. This is what the
adults told us and we believed them. Thus was ingrained in our minds the
promise of America. What a rude awakening awaited us.

Venturing into the world we started to see with our own eyes
how this promise was being broken. The civil rights movement
was in full swing when I graduated from high school. What I was seeing
did not meet any of the expectations I thought were implicit in the
promise. Liberty and justice were not for all. Yet there were courageous
people waging a struggle to right this wrong, to bring to a downtrodden
population their rightful guarantee of "liberty and justice for all".
Another civics lesson, you have to fight back against those who
would strip you of the promise. The war in Viet Nam was raging
at that time also. We were told it was to protect democracy against
communism. That the dominos would fall one by one if we did not stop the
forces of totalitarianism from spreading throughout SE Asia. After all
we were bringing the promise to the people of South Viet Nam. Again
there were people who didn't buy it. They brought to light the true
history of our involvement in that region of the world. How we had
betrayed the people of Viet Nam after WWII letting the French take back
their former colony and then canceling the elections in 1956.
The list is a long and shameful one of our manipulation of power and
deceit. The war tore America apart and left a trail of anger and
betrayal in its wake.

As the years passed, the ranks of the homeless were filled with
veterans destroyed by that betrayal and the ravages of PTSD. The promise
had again been broken, for they were left to deal with a country that
tossed them aside, unwilling to look them in the eye and say "we're
sorry, let us help you in your hour of need." Instead the VA denied them
the treatment promised them. Labeled as "disgruntled", "crazy", "losers"
or worse, most tried to fade into the background, not wanting to be
recognized for their service. Hiding in the prisons of their minds,
hoping no one knew their history. After many years these vets were
finally awarded the acknowledgement that maybe, just maybe, their wounds
were indeed real, that agent orange was the cause of some of their
problems and that PTSD was a real malady. The civics lesson
continued, "the Blessings of Liberty" were not for those who fought for
it, until you fight back.

As the years rolled by, America was treated to more corruption of the
promise. Watergate, Iran Contra, news turning into "infotainment",
uncompromising politicians who's "values" outweighed their duty to
"protect and defend the Constitution". Witch hunts added and abetted by
the forth estate brought us an impeachment. Zealots went about killing
doctors. The government is brought to a standstill by an
ideology bent on forcing its agenda on the public. Corporate greed
destroyed millions of lives through malfeasance. And no one is held
responsible. So much for establishing "Justice", promoting
"the general Welfare", and securing the "Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves and our Posterity." The promise was not only being
broken, it was being crushed beneath an avalanche of greed, avarice,
corruption and political power grabs. It was suffocating under
the weight of lies, media manipulation, fear mongering and a belief
system that still was under the delusion that "government of the people,
by the people, for the people" was still the norm. We are still
in that dream state of the promise. I think there is a slow awakening
from that dream and a realization that "we the people" are the only ones
capable of performing CPR on the promise. If you feel a hand on your
shoulder shaking you and a voice whispering in your ear, "wake up",
that's me.

That's me and a thousand other voices singing in unison "we shall
overcome". Singing, "give peace a chance". Singing, "This land is your
land, this land is my land." There is the phrase "preaching to the
choir". We are that choir and we are growing and getting louder. When a
million people gathered in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963 they heard
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. testify of his dream. A dream "where little
black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white
boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers." A dream
"that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character." A dream where we, "will be able to join hands and sing in
the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank
God Almighty, we are free at last!"

His dream is the promise, and the million people gathered there went out
and sang it loud. And because they sang in unison, with purpose, they
won. Another civics lesson learned, there is strength in numbers.

It is now time to grow our number until the voice of the choir drowns
out the echo chamber of the radical elements of our government and their
minions of hypocrisy who repeat the same lies over and over again on
talk radio and in their rarified position as "pundits". To drown out the
misinformation put out by "think tanks", corporate propaganda organs and
Madison Avenue ad agencies whose sole purpose is to steer you away from
the truth and lead you through the looking glass into a wonderland,
where if you drink the right beer you get the girl of your dreams. A
wonderland where a pill solves every problem or a new car puts you on
the road of happiness. A wonderland of facades and shallowness
built on the premise that money can buy you love. That is their promise.
It is a false one.

It is as false as the glorious worship of war that permeates
our society. War is a false god worshipped by warmongers and poll
watchers; a false god worshipped by the media whores who wish to be
bathed in its reflected glow; a false god worshipped by those who have
never seen, heard, smelled or touched the obscenity of the violence they
glorify. War is the promise breaker. As James Madison wrote in 1795, "Of
all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be
dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War
is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies,
and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many
under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of
the Executive [Branch of Government] is extended. Its influence in
dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the
means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force of
the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in
the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out
of a state of war...and in the degeneracy of manners and morals,
engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of
continual warfare." The promise cannot co-exist with war.

The flag is used by the war worshippers to incite and arouse
the masses to their cause. They want mandatory pledges of
allegiance in schools. They display it everywhere and anywhere. If you
don't have at least one article of clothing with a flag theme you must
be unpatriotic. Put one on your car if you want to be a "real American".
Congress is back again with a flag desecration amendment, never mind
that the President himself has desecrated the flag by signing one at
the Republican Nation Convention. Or that the US Flag Code is violated
every day by the thousands of tattered flags flying from the gutter
mounts of cars of "real Americans". Never mind that those who wave the
flag the hardest are the ones who had "other priorities" when it was
their time to serve. I have had many discussion with my fellow veterans
on the flag. What it means to them and how it is used to sway public
opinion. Many of them refuse to respect or honor it because it
has flown over the scenes of horrible atrocities, because it has been
used to advance a political agenda of war over peace. I
understand their feelings completely. Yet I am one of those who still
wants to believe that it represents more than that. Just because the
flag is hijacked by corrupt politicians and fear mongers, doesn't mean
we should let them get away with it. If we do, we will have allowed
them to steal the promise as surely as if we had left our doors unlocked
with a flashing neon sign on our porch saying "the good silver is in
here". I will not allow them to take the promise and bury it away under
their false patriotic fervor. If I do, a country with "liberty and
justice for all" will just be a dream and not the promise. I fly the
flag not out of fear of being unpatriotic or to worship the past glories
of a nation, I fly the flag out of hope that someday this country will
be able to live up to the promise we were taught as children, the
promise of a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all.