This past Fourth of July, in fact, a few days before, I replaced the American flag on my brother’s (and his wife’s) military grave marker at St. Philips Catholic cemetery in Litchfield. My brother, Dell, was a World War II Navy veteran, pharmacist mate 2nd class. He volunteered in 1943, saying, “I don’t want to sleep in a foxhole like our dad did.” Our dad was a veteran of World War I, fought in the battle of Argonne-Muse in France in 1918. His commanding officer said he was a “manly man” and would do well in civilian life. We were both very proud of him.
I put the flag in place in the little gold holder marking a veteran’s grave. There were lots of flags and flowers all around. I knelt and swept grass clippings from his marker. I stood and saluted. Even though I am not a veteran, it seemed appropriate and necessary. Then I returned to my car and sat thinking about the American flag and what it means to me.
When I was a boy, in the 1940s the war was raging all around the world. It was not clear who would win. We were the good guys, but sometimes good guys finish last. We won, however, some things in the USA did not change when the war ended. If you looked “different,” a different color or your eyes were a different shape or if you were female, you might be denied certain rights.
This year, 2020, we celebrated women getting the right to vote 100 years ago. (I never have understood, when 51 percent of the American population were denied that right until 1920.) Most of us will never know what a struggle they had to secure the 19th Amendment.
I’m getting away from my thoughts about the American flag. Most recently, there has been rioting and looting, and outright criminality by people who feel cheated of their perceived right of equality, and you know, they are right. Years of neglect have fueled an anger understood only by them.
Their right to protest and demonstrate is guaranteed by our Constitution. I suppose, if a professional athlete (for example) “takes a knee” at the game or place of social distancing, they have that right, as well. But I also have the right to say, “God Bless America and the Republic for which it stands.” The flag, to me, represents the good we Americans stand for. The Greater Good.
I found a definition of that concept that says, “greater good” “’can arguably be reduced to being aware of how your actions will affect others around you or society as a whole." The old Polish priest who married my wife and me 60 years ago said, “set a good example by your life.”
As I write this, my American flag is standing to my left. I brought it inside last evening because of high wind and possible storm. Is it just a piece of brightly woven cloth? Nope. America is a long way from perfect. Some of our founding fathers were slave owners and others were/are people of dubious character. There were and are great heroes who we will never know about. Some right here in Litchfield, Minnesota. I know one or two.
