As an unwilling participant in George W. Bush’s 8-year epic failure, I’ve lost many things: my pride as an American, my sense of security, my financial stability, my tolerance of the religious right, and my patience with idiocy. Of all of the things I've lost, though, none feels quite as disturbing as my inability to stop associating the American flag with George W. Bush.
It wasn’t always like this. In fact, right after 9/11 happened, I was one of those millions of people proudly displaying a flag sticker on my car and a flag flying outside of my house every single day. At that time, the flag represented solidarity with my fellow Americans; a symbol reflecting that even though we were grieving together, we would also be rebuilding together.
In 2002, with war still raging in Afghanistan, and constant terror warnings here at home, I began to tire of constantly living under the thumb of fear. I ached for some sign of hope, some semblance of normalcy. As I looked to my President for guidance, all that I was given was a larger dose of fear and anxiety. “Remember 9/11” became his mantra. War remained his message. I rejected both of them and peeled the flag sticker off of my car.
In 2003, President Bush went against all advice and common sense and moral decency and chose to invade Iraq, a country which had nothing to do with 9/11. I had thought that his threats of invasion were bluffs. When it comes right down to it, he won’t do it, I thought. It would be crazy to invade Iraq, I thought. Still, with his Cowboy Mentality and little else, that’s exactly what he did, alienating the rest of the world in the process and damning our reputation as a global leader. I took down the flag from my front porch. It no longer felt right to display it. I made the decision that I was not going to fly the flag until Bush was out of office. This government no longer represented me and I’d lost all faith in it.
In 2004, I had high hopes for change. There is no way that this fraud of a leader could possibly be re-elected, I reasoned. Surely everyone realizes how dangerous he’s been. We’ve all seen our rights stripped away under the supposed guise of the Patriot Act and the hollow promise to Keep America Safe from Terrorists. While I wasn’t completely enamored with John Kerry, he was a far better choice than Bush (in fact, ANYONE was a better choice than Bush), and I expected him to win the presidency handily.
At the same time, Bush worked hard to equate himself with patriotism and littered up cars with his stars-and-stripes re-election campaign bumper stickers. It worked. In an almost Pavlovian response, I began to associate American flag stickers with Bush. When Kerry lost the election, I sank into a weeks-long devastating depression. The only thing that kept me from the ledge was my commitment to stop bitching about what I didn’t like and instead write letters of complaint to my representatives. Nothing changed, but it felt like I at least earned the right of dissension.
Over the next four years, the symbol of an American flag came to represent for me fear, ignorance, war, distrust in government, manipulation, selfishness, and greed. Whether or not it was fair, I began to judge people with flag stickers on their cars as being out of touch Bushies who’d fallen victim to his and Cheney’s fear-induced mind control. My tolerance of his supporters evaporated to the point where I had a difficult time sharing the same airspace with them. It was incredulous to me that people could still approve of him. Had they been living in a cave without benefit of radio, TV, newspaper, or human contact? To me, they were part of the 56 million people who’d gotten it so terribly wrong during the 2004 presidential election. By re-electing Bush, they essentially sentenced us to life in a hopeless, fear-based, never-ending-war train wreck and I wanted nothing to do with them.
Several times during those difficult years, the kids would ask me why we didn’t fly the flag outside on our porch any more. I will not fly another American flag until I can believe in my country again, I told them. I will not fly the flag until the government is once again working for people like me.
Last Tuesday’s election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States reignited a powerful sense of hope in me, and I felt as if I could once again breathe. For the first time in eight years, it felt like things really, truly, were going to be OK. Finally sense and decency would prevail over greed and lies and fear. Government would once again have the potential to be For The People rather than For Certain People. The days of Bush/Cheney oppression were finally over.
Today, in keeping my promise, I bought a new American flag and proudly hung it out front on my porch. Hanging it felt kind of like how the astronauts must have felt when they planted that first American flag on the moon: We’ve made it, we’re here, and from this point forward, nothing will ever be the same.
Comments
rated
Lisa - Yes - that's it exactly: patriotism has been tainted and spun into something arrogant and hateful. Let's restore its true meaning once again.
Bush's responses to 9-11 make the terrorists stronger in a way. Maybe that's what he wanted so he could keep the American people in grip of fear so he could achieve his ultimate objective of invading Iraq. I hope we have closed this sad chapter in American history.