The people behind the American flag flying upside-down in 2021


It's February 8th, 2021, and although I'm not seeing as many flags flying upside-down as I did right after January 20th of this year, there's still one that I ride past every morning, not far from me, in Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. And no, I'm not going to post a photo of it, it's not only upside-down but it's tattered and torn. I wouldn't even consider displaying an American flag like that, not even on the internet. But I think that I can explain, if you're interested.

I didn't know it until this year, but a flag flying upside down is a signal of dire distress, like doing S.O.S. on a telegraph, or shouting "Mayday!" into a microphone of a plane. It's an extreme call for help. And as the upside-down flags kept flying in my little suburban neighborhood, day after day, with no answer, I started to think about the people behind those flags. And if you have no sympathy for those people, I'd like to see if I can change your mind. I have a background in advertising, and teaching, and I'd like to believe those things have made me a good persuader. Maybe not, it's up to you!

We have to start with something called a "premise". If you were to say, for example, "the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time is the Rolling Stones!", I would have a choice, before we moved on with finer details of discussion, as to whether I accepted the premise or not. If I simply said, "The Beatles!" and your answer was, "The Stones!" the discussion would stay there, and we would never move forward, ending only when someone says, "Ah, you're ugly and your mom dresses you funny!" I've never had an interest in that, which is commonly called a  "Flame War" on social media. I also call it "kittens fighting", and it makes me sad.

So if you're still with me on the logic here, the basic premise has to do with information. For many people, the information that someone like me relies on, mainstream media, is completely artificial. That is, all of the information is fake news. You may have heard that expression, which became popular a few years ago. And it's at that point that the world's most boring arguments begin: "Article in a newspaper!" "Fake news!"

Once someone has turned off all the information from mainstream media, the next step is a very logical one. Human nature being what it is, people need information, and there's plenty of it, both on the internet, and shared between like-minded people. I created an account on an app that these people went to when they were dissatisfied with mainstream apps, and it really tugged at my heart strings. Social media like that tends to be an "echo chamber", with things being repeated over and over. There's also a tricky kind of "sing-song" language there, with special nicknames that you have to learn in order to follow it. Luckily, I could use the internet to do the same thing I do with stuff I don't understand from young people - I look it up.

So my heart does go out to the people who are in great despair nowadays, and I'm sad that I can't help them. My confident attitude seems to be a bit sinister to these people, who are always quick to say, "Ah ha! That's what I thought! That's what they want me to think!" My credentials as a former college teacher just seems to make it worse. It was only computer graphics, but it's enough for some people to say, "Ah ha! He's one of THEM!"

I don't expect everyone to think exactly the way that I do - in fact that would be very boring for me. I like people who have different viewpoints, different cultures, different languages. I love learning, and I hope to be able to do it for the rest of my life. I've known many people, from saints to sinners, and to me they're all the same. I've known to keep some people at arm's length - and nowaday at least six feet away from me, but I would never turn my back on them. I may not agree with what you say, but this is the United States of America, and I'll defend your right to say it.

By the way, I'm going with the Beatles myself!
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

  1. CelesteFebruary 9, 2021 at 9:31 PM

    I like your last sentence. "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it." And I like the Beatles over the Stones, too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brad HallFebruary 10, 2021 at 6:30 AM

    Thank you, Celeste! I have to admit to being very sad when I sat down to write this, but sharing it made me feel better. Thank you for taking a look! And agreeing on a premise is so very, very important to me - I would find it disconcerting if someone said, "The Beatles never existed!" I would probably just wander off and think that "yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away..."

    ReplyDelete
  3. pamtOctober 17, 2021 at 1:39 PM

    I understand it but I would not do it. I’ve not heard much about all of the American flag burnings. I wouldn’t do that either.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more