Taking back the American flag


I just spoke to a neighbor of mine, who has lived a good long life (longer than mine!), and is a proud American (although he wasn't born there) and since he and I don't get out much, we usually just see each other around the neighborhood, which is Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

We talked about nothing important for a while, and then I mentioned my project of figuring out how to take the American flag back. This puzzled him, and I had to explain what I had been seeing for the past few months, how the American flag had been used as a symbol of hatred, and bigotry, along with the Confederate flag, and flags flying for the President who is currently undergoing his second impeachment.

He was shocked, and surprised, that this had happened and I assured him that I had seen a lot of it, both IRL (In Real Life) and in social media. The American flag, which for so long was the symbol of liberty and the pursuit of justice, had taken on a sinister meaning. Actually the color red had undergone the same change, but that didn't matter to me, I've never been that fond of red.

But I like the American flag. My family has been involved with many wars over the years to keep it flying, from the Revolutionary War to World War II. My father was in Okinawa when his fellow Marines raised the flag at Iwo Jima.

When the numbers showed that America had elected a new president last year (2020), I put my American flag on my trike and pedaled around for a few days. And then it started to occur to me that most people wouldn't understand, and would think that I was one of the people who supported racial hatred, and intolerance. That made me think, and I stopped riding around with the flag waving, and pondered how I could begin the process of taking the American flag back.


I decided on Captain America, who was my favorite superhero when I read comic books in the 1960s. A good friend of mine made me a decal of the shield which I've hung on the back of my trike, and ride around with.

I want to see America become great again, and it's happening. For those who think that they can steal the spirit of America, and the American flag, I only have one thing to say: tell it to the Marines!
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