There's an anti-immigrant e-mail floating around that depicts a group of Hispanic high school students raising the Mexican flag above the American flag on a flagpole outside their high school. The creator of the e-mail expresses utter outrage at the lack of respect for our national symbol and urges the viewer to pass on the e-mail if they are similarly enraged.
I received that flag e-mail again this week, and this is how I responded to its sender:
"I’ve seen that e-mail before, and it never comes accompanied with a note urging folks to keep things in perspective. Then again, I never was big into idol worship, even when the idol was a piece of cloth, so I guess I just don’t have the same visceral feeling others get when they see an American flag so depicted.
The first thing that strikes me when I look at those photographs is that they depict a bunch of kids, who by their very nature as kids don’t grasp the depth of emotions they trigger in folks here who revere the flag like a god. Five years from now, they’ll know better.
The other thing that strikes me about the e-mail is how it’s engineered to create the impression that all Hispanic immigrants are disrespectful, flag-hating people. It takes the actions of a handful of nitwits and attempts to use them to smear a whole class of people; a classic example of bigotry in action.
I can’t decide which I loathe more – the bigotry or the idol worshiping."
Subsequently, the sender took issue with my reference to flag adoration being akin to idol worshiping. Here is my rebuttal:
"One reason I'm so negative about the 'pro flag' sentiment that has reached a crescendo over recent years is the corresponding willingness of those same flag wavers to shed every freedom and value that the flag was said to represent - all in the name of maintaining national security. If the events of 9/11 proved anything, it's how little we actually treasure our freedoms...because we quickly jettisoned them at the first sign of adversity. If Americans defended their freedoms and time-honored values with the same intensity as they worship the U.S. flag, this country would be a place worthy of national pride...and so would the flag.
I remember, back when I was a kid, asking my grandmother why God was so mad about the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. It was just a large piece of gold, she said. Some people thought it could do something, but it was just an object and God was upset that it took their focus away from Him and what was really important.
Today, I look at the flag in the same light. It's just an object that takes every one's focus away from that which is truly important. If that viewpoint makes me unpatriotic, so be it, but I tend to think that defending freedom is a far higher calling than defending a collection of strands of cotton, polyester and nylon."
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