Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I'd seen abroad. This was a difficult and emotional time, with all the patriotic fer-
vor that comes with an invasion. Perhaps a third of our town opposed the war, and
two-thirds supported it. The Lions Club lined the streets of our town with American
flags and declared they would stay there in support of our troops until they finished
the job and came home in victory.
While I supported our troops, I opposed the war because I believed that the
president knowingly lied to get us there. When the Lions Club erected all those
flags—which were normally reserved for patriotic holidays—I became very un-
comfortable. I wanted to embrace my flag, but was put in a regrettable position that
doing so would be tantamount to supporting the war. I felt as though my flag had
been demoted from something that all Americans shared (regardless of their polit-
ics) to a promotional logo for a war I didn't believe in. I knew several Edmonds
merchants agreed that our Stars and Stripes had been kidnapped. But in my con-
servative town, they feared not flying it would threaten their business. They felt
frightened. Their predicament reminded me of those German shopkeepers who had
to stop saying “
Grüss Gott.
” And my own town reminded me of those red, white,
and blue-drenched towns in Ulster. Although to a far lesser degree, I felt that here
in my hometown, a minority (of which I was a part) was also being oppressed by a
tyranny of the majority. In defense of our flag, I had to act.
I explained my concerns to the president of the Lions Club. He understood and
agreed to have his club take down the flags after a week. It didn't happen. So, hum-
ming “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to myself, I marched through town collecting and
carefully stowing the flags. It was a small, symbolic, and perhaps overly righteous
move on my part, motivated by what I considered patriotic concerns.
While some supported me, many were angry. I was shark bait on Seattle's right-
wing radio talk shows for several days. But now, when my little town is a festival of
Stars and Stripes on holidays like the Fourth of July, Presidents' Day, and Election
Day, everybody can celebrate together because the flag flies for all of us—even the
peaceniks.
But invariably, wealthy people begin to realize that their “cheap labor” is not quite
as cheap as they hoped. In Europe, the importation of labor creates fast-growing immig-
rant communities that need help and incentives to assimilate, or society at large will pay a
steep price (as we saw in 2005, when the deaths of two black teenagers while being pur-
sued by French cops ignited violent riots that rocked the poor African and Arab suburbs
of Paris).
