Let’s Stand Up for Something More!

I cannot let it go.  It irks my soul and it robs my beloved country of its soul. It is a form of idolatry. What is it I am ranting about?  I’m ranting about a president who wants everyone to stand for the national anthem while he himself refuses to stand up, as he promised to do, “to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  That Constitution provides free speech protections—and those protections include persons kneeling in protest during the national anthem in the NFL, the NBA, or anywhere else in this land. It also includes desecrating (by burning or other means) the nation’s flag as a form of protest.  This particular “free speech protection” was upheld by the Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson (1989) and The United States v. Eichman (1990).  

The Constitution gives the Supreme Court the power to check the actions of the President and Congress.  Last I heard, it can tell a President that his actions are not allowed by the Constitution.  It can tell Congress that a law it passed violated the U.S. Constitution and is, therefore, no longer law.  It can also do this with state governments. President Trump is violating the law when he, by the power of his office, demands “standing” for the national anthem and the flag, as the only “patriotic” behavior and those who do not stand are somehow “unpatriotic” or do not support our troops, etc.  

Reverence for the flag has its place, but only as representative of something more.  Reverence for the flag (i.e. the “Republic for which it stands”) was ingrained in me from early childhood.  I still react when I see it being treated wrongly (as in touching the ground).  My heart leaps every time I see those pictures of our flag being raised at Iwo Jima.  Tears come to my eyes when I recall the emotion I felt watching the flag being planted on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, or when, as an Air Force chaplain, I greeted flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base.  After years of military service I am deeply moved at every veteran’s funeral service  when taps is sounded and the flag is folded and handed to a mother, a wife, or a daughter or son.  Someday that flag will be folded and given to one of my loved ones. 

The flag is a piece of cloth with red and white stripes and field of blue with stars.  It is a thing, an object, that never represents itself, and was never meant to do so. (The same is true of the national anthem).  It represents something far deeper, something far more meaningful.  No soldier, marine, sailor or airman has ever pledged allegiance to the flag—but only to “the Republic for which it stands…” and solemnly swearing that he or she “will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;” that he or she “will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…” Freedom of speech protections are an important part of that Constitution, being designated as the FIRST Amendment.