by Cathy
.JPG) | |||
I took the above picture while driving down the alley from my house yesterday. A small American flag on a splintered piece of wood is slid precariously through some intertwined television cables running alongside a large multi-unit building. At first, I thought it almost sacrilege that an American flag was placed seemingly carelessly above a huge, smelly dumpster. I scoffed at the imaginary person who thought it appropriate to display our Stars and Stripes in such a place and angrily chalked it up as a mockery of our symbol of freedom.
On the return drive home, I passed through this same alley but from the other direction. I had forgotten the flag was there until it took me by powerful surprise when my eye caught it after passing the dumpster. It was completely unexpected and it made me stop. I reversed the car and took a picture of it, because now, I get it. I get why someone chose to express their patriotism by placing the flag there.
The place where one chooses to display our flag does not matter. The size of the flag does not matter. The only thing that matters is the intention behind displaying it. If this person meant to be sacrilegious with that flag, it would have been sitting on top of the dumpster, or worse, thrown inside of it. But someone wanted to express their patriotism in this small way, which contrarily, makes a much bigger impact than if found in a more expected place. The juxtaposition of such a strong, powerful and symbolic representation of our country against the imperfect, realistically gritty urban setting of the alley, makes one take notice of the unexpectedness of the presentation. It doesn't give any less meaning to our flag, in fact, it brings it more to light - and what it represents for us:
Fighting for and maintaining our right to be free
Respect for the country we are privileged to live in; the country that so many die trying to enter
Expressing our right to freedom of speech
Enduring civil and international wars
Declaring our independence over oppression, occupancy and tyranny
Ousting known terrorists and thwarting their plots
Military: our freedom is not possible without you
Tick, tock,
our country's locked
and nobody else can claim it;
and if they do
I'll take my shoe
and beat them 'til they're red, white and blue
