This July 4, take back our flag
Three weeks ago, I participated in a Black Lives Matter march in Haverford Township, organized by students from Haverford High School.
When we marched, I proudly waved the flag of our country because I believe in what it stands for - equality, freedom and justice for all under the law. I believe those values are precisely what the BLM movement is all about.
I grew up in Havertown, as did my wife. We have raised our five children here. For almost 40 years I was the director of parks and recreation and my wife taught first grade in the public schools. Haverford Township is a great community. I know many of the police. The ones I know are professional and good people.
I love the Fourth of July. For many years I organized our neighborhood July 4th celebration because I had such fond memories from my childhood, and I wanted our kids to have those memories. I loved decorating bikes, the parade, the music, the races, the fireworks and seeing old soldiers in their uniforms.
My father served in World War II, like the dads of most other kids in my neighborhood growing up. He taught us great respect for the flag and what it stands for. I grew up in a conservative household. However, any student of history knows this country was built on protest. Thomas Payne was a radical. His writings; especially “Common Sense,” called for a radical change in society. He believed, We the People, could govern ourselves and that everyone was part of that process. No one had ever considered that type of government before.
Too often, especially in the last
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few years, some have tried to hijack our flag. Too often those who wave the flag seem to think it applies to some Americans more than others. Too often we associate flag wavers with angry white men who resent the changes in our society. Our flag is much greater than that. Our flag represents the noblest of ideals about who we are as a people and what we believe; equality, freedom, justice under the law.
After college, in the late 1970s, I was a VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) worker in a juvenile prison in Columbia, S.C. At that time the Confederate flag flew over the state capital building. That struck me as odd because
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All submissions are subject to editing. they had fought against our country. However, I enjoyed living in the south. I chose to live in an integrated neighborhood, which was different for me because there were no integrated neighborhoods where I lived in the north.
When I returned home after my year of service, I was struck by how much prejudice and bigoted talk there was among those whom I encountered at work and socially. That seemed odd to me because rarely did we encounter a person of color. Perhaps I just wasn’t sensitive to that talk previously. I became aware that because of my experiences, I was one of only a very few white people
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610.622.8887 I knew, who had ever been to a black family’s house for dinner, had a black person to my house for meals, had worked with a majority of black people and had often been in the minority in social settings.
When I marched in that protest waving the flag, I was met with befuddled looks from some angry flag wavers we encountered along our route. They seemed confused by why I would carry the flag with me, while marching. But I knew why I carried the flag. I carried it to remind us all what the flag represents and that we are always in the process of striving to live up to the ideals on which this country was founded. You only need
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Letters to the Editor, 639S. Chester Road Swarthmore, PA 19081 to read books like, “The Warmth of Other Suns”, by Isabel Wilkerson, to understand how systematic racism is embedded in our history. Even though we have often fallen woefully short in living up to our ideals, I encourage those who stand for equality and justice to take back the flag and wave it proudly.
I feel the same way about the Christian religion. As a child raised in Catholic school, I remember being proud of the nuns and priests I saw on TV, who marched and were beaten for standing with those in the civil rights protests of the 1960s. It seemed to me they understood what Jesus’ message was about:” Love one another.” “When I was hungry you fed me, when I was a stranger you took me in, when I was a prisoner you visited me.” Mathew 25:35.
Too often those who label themselves Christian seem more focused on driving a political agenda that lines up with the current Republican Party mantra. Jesus never spoke about gun ownership, building walls or tax breaks. For those who call themselves Christian, let’s take back our religion. Be proud to stand for those things Jesus actually talked about and taught.
This Fourth of July raise that flag; wave it wide and high to remind us of the great experiment this country is. Remind yourself and your neighbors that we all have the right to be here, to be treated fairly and to be valued as a human being and a citizen of the United States of America.
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