Something greater than itself

Re: “Don’t compare flag to tea, bus,” June 12 letter to the editor

This letter-writer apparently missed the history lesson regarding the reason we are all free: the freedom conferred by the U.S. Constitution. I am a Vietnam veteran, and the son of an Air Force veteran who was a POW in World War II. We all took a similar oath: to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This is a nation of laws, not anthems or flags.

While the flag may have served as a rallying point at Iwo Jima and in other battles, and the national anthem often brings tears, our nation of laws is still standing because of the Constitution — that marvelous, living document that has sustained our democracy for 243 years. Don’t confuse flag-waving patriotism with the true meaning of America. Since the French-Indian War in the 1750s, my family has been handed many folded flags. The reason we can still accept them is because of the Constitution. Christopher Gunn Haydon, Cañon City