[Vision2020] Liberals: Take Back the Flag! Flag Day, June 14th

[Nicholas Gier]

Good Morning Visionaries,

This week I've revised a piece that I did for Flag Day 2005.  It will
appear in the Daily News tomorrow morning.

Yours for Old Glory Red as well as Old Glory Blue (see below),

Nick

*LIBERALS: TAKE BACK THE FLAG!*

Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion

but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.

            It was May Day, 1967, and I was doing my daily run around the
national stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark, where I was completing my year as
a Rotary Fellow.  On the expansive lawns celebrating the world’s most
important leftist holiday were thousands of Danish Communists, Socialists,
and Social Democrats.

Something struck me about what many of these Danes had in their hands.  For
every bottle of beer, some of the best in the world, there were just as
many small Danish flags.  As an American I thought: “What a novel idea:
patriots on the left.”

This was not the first time I had noticed and admired Danish patriotism.
At every major occasion–a birthday or a wedding–little flags are festooned
everywhere and a big flag is flying in the yard.  Danish homes, including
the summer cottages, are not complete without a flag pole.  The flag
belongs to all Danes, not just one political faction.

The Sri Lankan flag contains two stripes, green embracing the Muslims and
orange integrating the Hindus, thus validating their Sinhalese identity in
the Country of the Lion (Sinhala).

Buddhist nationalists have removed these colors from their own flag as a
clear warning to Sri Lankan Hindus, Muslims, and Christians that they are
no longer welcome in their own country.  For these folks the upraised sword
in the lion’s paw now takes on a more ominous meaning.

Most Americans could not place Sri Lanka (let alone Idaho) on a map, but I
still fear that some of our own nationalists might get wind of this.  One
might instruct his wife to sew a new American flag replacing the “Old Glory
Blue” behind the 50 white stars with “Old Glory Red,” the official colors
of the flag according to the Standard Color Reference of America.

Speaking of colors, I just saw for the first time the bumper sticker “These
Colors Do Not Run.” Is this a warning that we must not mix good European
stock with other blood to make a rainbow flag?  It most likely means that
true patriots don’t run when the country is in danger, and I would hope
that the author meant that both the Reds and the Blues would stand together
against legitimate threats to the nation.

Buddhist and American nationalism are of course the exact opposite of true
patriotism, which, like the Danes’ example, is inclusive and embracing
rather than exclusive and dividing.  Genuine patriots are loyal to their
country’s principles, not necessarily to their government’s current
policies.

American patriots should exercise their right to dissent and to resist the
tyranny of an irrational majority.  They should also make common cause with
countries that share the same liberal democratic principles, and they
should remain true to the treaties that they’ve made with them.

Wise patriots would not be afraid to admit their country’s mistakes, and
they would not make exceptionalist and patronizing claims about national
destiny and obligation.  God blesses all nations, not just the US.

True patriotism is not a narrow nationalism that goes its own way—“you are
either with us or against us”--but one that embraces the UN charter,
international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the
Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners and prohibitions on
torture.

Political liberalism has a long distinguished tradition that goes back to
the American and French revolutions.  Against the divine right of kings and
the caste society of classical conservatism, these “classical” liberals
have always stood for liberty, equality, and community, my own
interpretation of the French word *fraternité.*

Following the Danish example, we should all respect each other’s love for
the classical liberal principles for which this nation stands “with liberty
and justice for all.”

UI Emeritus Professor Nick Gier broadcasts as the “Palouse Pundit” every
Wednesday morning on KRFP FM 92.5.
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