I have this stitched American flag sweater tank which has survived years of closet purges and even a move across the country, though I can’t remember ever wearing it. Why has it remained in my wardrobe? Maybe I like the idea of it… it's funny! A sweater tank top? That is not a garment suited for any type of weather. But I don’t wear it because I don't like the idea of it. I am surprised to find upon reflection that the symbol of the American flag is not something I relate to. How is it, that as someone who loves hiking, a true pioneer past time, and who recognizes the freedoms she enjoys are unique to this country, that I reject its most primary symbol?
Symbols are powerful, and here in Idaho I see people regularly adorning their bodies and their vehicle with the flag who are also acting like jerks. I see them intimidating people out of exercising their First Amendment Rights to freedom of speech and assembly and I breathe in their exhaust as they drive in circles around downtown Boise in large trucks with terrible gas mileage just to, I don’t know, prove a point? They make the flag look bad and their actions seem to say, this is what America looks like and it’s ours, not yours.
It’s deeper than that though, I have had this tank top for a long time. I’d probably have worn it by now if I associated the symbol of the flag with my freedom but I don’t because I don’t see our country as having ever been truly egalitarian and free for all people and I believe no one is free, until we are all free. Some flag-flyers believe that America is free, that they are free and they hail the flag, and lets not forget the poor eagle, as symbols of that.
Armed with the self-knowledge of my own departure from national pride, I decided to take stock of the things I do love and am grateful for and for which the America flag represents for me. This is where I live and where I am raising my two cats. I have an education and am free to tell my stories. I get to choose who I marry, if I marry, and whether I have children or not. I get to know people who look and think different from me and be enriched by their influence. And I live in Idaho, where the hiking is phenomenal. So in an effort to Free the Flag from the tyranny of the times, and to represent my own interpretation of America’s most basic symbol of freedom, I’ll wear the sweater tank (when the weather is just right, of coarse.)