Flags, God, and Nationalism

The memorials for Sept. 11 that are small US flags, stuck into playgrounds, tied to fences, and waved around worry me. This kind of nationalism seems blind. There are so many emotions--anger, hurt, love--and people express them with the flag. They use the flag instead of logic and instead of going to representatives and saying, "I am sad, and I think we need to do such and such." Children learn to display patriotism and emotion with flags, but do they learn how to take action to make things "right"?

There is a faith that goes behind the flag waving, that we are America and problems and corruption will work out BECAUSE we are a country that stands for freedom or stands for justice. But, the country does not work by itself and without people making decisions that things are no longer working as they used to work. The laws and actions of the US government do not support freedom or justice all of the time. The government is very inconsistent and dependent on a system that does not always have the "good" of the people (pork and lobbyists) in mind when it enacts laws and measures that restrict civil rights. Blind faith in religion is someone's choice, a choice they have under the US Constitution. Blind faith in the government and in the country as a whole is not a choice. Citizens must not "let things be up to God" in our government. God wasn't elected, nor are the elected officials answerable to God. They are answerable to the laws of the land and to the people who elect them.

We need to act, not wait and trust in the Lord. We need to vote. We need to protest, and we need to be careful of how we use the flag and nationalism. The adage of learning from history is one we need to keep in mind and in action.