From Tucson, Arizona, Barbara Kingsolver, author, wrote the folowing remarks:

> 'Only we have the power to demolish our own ideals'
> By Barbara Kingsolver
>
> My daughter came home from kindergarten and announced, "Tomorrow we all have
> to wear red, white and blue."
>
> "Why?" I asked, trying not to sound wary.
>
> "For all the people that died when the airplanes hit the buildings."
>
>     I would like to stand up for my flag and wave it over a few things I
> believe in, including but not limited to the protection of dissenting points
> of view.
>
> I fear the sound of saber-rattling, dread that not just my taxes but even my
> children are being dragged to the cause of death in the wake of death. I
> asked quietly, "Why not wear black, then? Why the colors of the flag, what
> does that mean?"
>
> "It means we're a country. Just all people together."
>
> So we sent her to school in red, white and blue, because it felt to her like
> something she could do to help people who are hurting. And because my wise
> husband put a hand on my arm and said, "You can't let hateful people steal
> the flag from us."
>
> He didn't mean terrorists; he meant Americans. Like the man in a city near
> us who went on a rampage crying "I'm an American" as he shot at foreign-born
> neighbors, killing a gentle Sikh man in a turban and terrifying every
> brown-skinned person I know.
>
> Or the talk-radio hosts, who are viciously bullying a handful of members of
> Congress for airing sensible skepticism at a time when the White House was
> announcing preposterous things in apparent self-interest, such as the
> "revelation" that terrorists had aimed to hunt down Air Force One with a
> hijacked commercial plane. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., cast the House's only
> vote against handing over virtually unlimited war powers to one man that a
> whole lot of us didn't vote for. As a consequence, so many red-blooded
> Americans have now threatened to kill her, she has to have additional
> bodyguards.
>
> Patriotism seems to be falling to whoever claims it loudest, and we're left
> struggling to find a definition in a clamor of reaction. This is what I'm
> hearing: Patriotism opposes the lone representative of democracy who was
> brave enough to vote her conscience instead of following an angry mob.
> (Several others have confessed they wanted to vote the same way, but
> chickened out.)
>
> Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful
> hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It
> despises people of foreign birth who've spent years learning our culture and
> contributing their talents to our economy. It has specifically blamed
> homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union.
>
> In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship,
> violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and shoving the Constitution through
> a paper shredder? Who are we calling terrorists here?
>
> Outsiders can destroy airplanes and buildings, but it is only we, the
> people, who have the power to demolish our own ideals.
>
> It's a fact of our culture that the loudest mouths get the most airplay, and
> the loudmouths are saying now that in times of crisis it is treasonous to
> question our leaders.
>
> Nonsense.
>
> That kind of thinking let fascism grow out of the international depression
> of the 1930s. In critical times, our leaders need most to be influenced by
> the moderating force of dissent. That is the basis of democracy, in sickness
> and in health, and especially when national choices are difficult, and bear
> grave consequences.
>
> It occurs to me that my patriotic duty is to recapture my flag from the men
> now waving it in the name of jingoism and censorship. This isn't easy for
> me. The last time I looked at a flag with unambiguous pride, I was 13. Right
> after that, Vietnam began teaching me lessons in ambiguity, and the lessons
> have kept coming.
>
> I've learned of things my government has done to the world that made me
> direly ashamed. I've been further alienated from my flag by people who waved
> it at me declaring I should love it or leave it. I search my soul and find I
> cannot love killing for any reason. When I look at the flag, I see it
> illuminated by the rocket's red glare.
>
> This is why the warmongers so easily gain the upper hand in the patriot
> game:
>
> Our nation was established with a fight for independence, so our iconography
> grew out of war.
>
> Our national anthem celebrates it; our language of patriotism is inseparable
> from a battle cry.
>
> Our every military campaign is still launched with phrases about men dying
> for the freedoms we hold dear, even when this is impossible to square with
> reality.
>
> In the Persian Gulf War we rushed to the aid of Kuwait, a monarchy in which
> women enjoyed approximately the same rights as a 19th-century American
> slave. The values we fought for and won there are best understood, I think,
> by oil companies. Meanwhile, a country of civilians was devastated, and
> remains destroyed.
>
> Stating these realities does not violate the principles of liberty,
> equality, and freedom of speech; it exercises them, and by exercise we grow
> stronger.
>
> I would like to stand up for my flag and wave it over a few things I believe
> in, including but not limited to the protection of dissenting points of
> view. After 225 years, I vote to retire the rocket's red glare and the
> bullet wound as obsolete symbols of Old Glory.
>
> We desperately need a new iconography of patriotism. I propose we rip
> stripes of cloth from the uniforms of public servants who rescued the
> injured and panic-stricken, remaining at their post until it fell down on
> them. The red glare of candles held in vigils everywhere as peace-loving
> people pray for the bereaved, and plead for compassion and restraint.
>
> The blood donated to the Red Cross. The stars of film and theater and music
> who are using their influence to raise money for recovery. The small hands
> of schoolchildren collecting pennies, toothpaste, teddy bears, anything they
> think might help the kids who've lost their moms and dads.
>
> My town, Tucson, Ariz., has become famous for a simple gesture in which some
> 8,000 people wearing red, white or blue T-shirts assembled themselves in the
> shape of a flag on a baseball field and had their photograph taken from
> above. Our family stood in silence for a minute looking at that photo of a
> human flag, trying to know what to make of it.
>
> Then my teen-age daughter, who has a quick mind for numbers and a sensitive
> heart, did an interesting thing. She laid her hand over a quarter of the
> picture, leaving visible more or less 6,000 people, and said, "That many are
> dead."
>
> We stared at what that looked like - all those innocent souls, multicolored
> and packed into a conjoined destiny - and shuddered at the one simple truth
> behind all the noise, which is that so many beloved people have suddenly
> gone from us.
>
> That is my flag, and that's what it means: We're all just people together.
>
> * Tucson writer Barbara Kingsolver is the author of nine books including
> "The Poisonwood Bible." This column appeared first in the San Francisco
> Chronicle.
>
> Back to Story
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     All content copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star