How Americans won the presidency, and lost the flag in 2021


It's June of 2021, and although I've resisted it, I'm admitting that the American flag is lost as a symbol for my America. It's horrifying to me, and shocking, that it could have happened, but it did. And so it was with great sadness that I took the flag down from my house today.

I live in Arizona, in a Phoenix suburb, and watched last year as the American flag flew alongside of other symbols of hate, including the Confederate flag. And when those people lost, and a new president came to power, I was hopeful again for America, for the first time in a long time. I flew the American flag, and have been doing so for many months now. But no more.

My America helped the change the world. It was meant as a place of equality and opportunity for everyone. To me, the American flag symbolized the great things that had been done by my forefathers, including defeating the British for our independence, keeping the Union together during the Civil War, making the world safe for democracy during World War I, and doing it again in World War II.

But the United States flag as a symbol has been stained forever. And in spite of its history, the message that it sends nowadays is not the one that I support. This sort of thing has happened before to symbols, and the one that springs to my mind is something that Native Americans called "rolling logs", which you can still see on some pre-World War II indian artwork. But that symbol was changed forever almost overnight, and it remains that way. I won't say exactly what that was, but if you're confused, go ahead and Google it, and you'll understand. I will not even speak of it here.

Speaking for myself, I have hopes that a new symbol will be created that people like me can display with pride in the country that we love. I'm keeping my eyes open for a new design, and I'd like to believe that it will happen, and that the agenda that some people continue will soon simply become history.
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