Two Flags, One Nation

Two Flags, One Nation

This country has always been about building, and usually it was building on the backs of immigrants, slaves , the poor and the working class and of course at the expense of Natives who were here way before any Europeans set foot on these sacred grounds. Of course for many of us life is good, freedom was like the air we breath, taken for granted and expected. That complacency has blinded most and left the American Indian in squaller, the African American still relegated to racism and now immigrants who all of us are descendants discriminated against. Living in Northern New York one would think you are insulated , but at times like this you can feel you’re at the epicenter.

A flag takes new meaning.

Growing up in America there were two flags you lived under. The stars and stripes indelibly etched in our collective souls, the one our fathers, uncles, cousins, mothers and daughters and sons of all colors and origins fought and died for.

The other the Confederate battle flag which during the 1950’s  ( and long before ) till the present represented racism and oppression of the worst kind. It had a brief period when it was coopted by Rock n Roll as a symbol of rebellion by naive white musicians, me briefly being one of them.  I didn’t think of the weight that symbol carried. Now that I am a grandfather of children of color it has a much more powerful and negative meaning and it’s personal.

That flag now is meant to intimidate , it’s no longer relegated to the naive , it’s a powerful statement that has been used for over 150 years and today that statement is just as meaningful as it was in Selma back in 1964 or when Dorthy Counts was followed by a crowd of whites spitting on her, screaming profanities as she was entering her first day of High School..

So as I travelled into town on an old country road up here in the North Country and passed by a beautiful log home,

christened with a large Confederate  battle flag flowing in the mountain breeze, the air abruptly seemed polluted and the stench of that symbol of racism, anti semitism and hate filled the air.

None of us should ever forget that racism, hate in all forms is nothing new to this country, it still holds a powerful place in the land of the free. It has been lying dormant beneath the so called progress we’ve made as a nation , the progress seen mainly by the white middle class,

a blanket that makes us feel cozy and safe, that Democracy is working, but in reality Democracy is a machine that does not operate by itself. Democracy needs the fuel of compassion, empathy,moral integrity and most of all equality.

Yesterday after seeing the house with the Confederate flag, I picked up the mail which ironically had James Baldwins documentary “ I’m Not Your Negro “ 

 directed by Raul Peck. One of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.

Highly recommended and somehow….. I feel this has a connection to, Cancer.