Retiring historic flags, and preserving the one that matters


It's January of 2021, and if you're like me, kinda oblivious of what's going on in modern times, and more interested in history, you may be surprised to find that a few historic flags, which had a meaning to old history buffs like me, have in recent years taken on a sinister meaning, and speaking for myself, I say it's time to retire them. But I want to preserve the American flag, and that's gonna take some doing.

I've lived in Arizona for many years, and whenever I saw a "Don't Tread on Me" flag, or even a Confederate flag, it just meant something historical to me, and I thought that the people flying those flags were interested in American history, like I am. This was a naive point of view, I recently learned, after watching many of these historic symbols in the hands of the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th.

Yes, I know the historic significance of the "Don't Tread on Me" flag, my family was there when it was sending a message to the British. My family didn't live in the South, but the "Stars and Bars" had a historical significance to American history, too. As someone who has always been interested in history, I've read about the Civil War, and since it's such an important event, I would hate to see the history be erased, for fear that it would repeat.

I won't even post a swastika here, but if you're a history person you know that it was simply a good luck symbol before the Nazis changed the meaning of it forever. I have an old Rudyard Kipling book from 1918 that has that symbol on he first page. You can even see it on American Indian artwork pre-World War II, where it was simply called "rolling logs". After the war, the American tribes who had used it vowed that they would never use it again, and they've stayed true to that promise.

Times change, and that's what history is all about. This past year has taught me to pay more attention to the history going on all around me, and I will participate, by retiring historic flags that have taken on sinister meaning, and working to working to preserve the American flag, which has often been under attack, but it keeps waving.

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