Blue Star Chronicles

I’m glad that Barack Hussein Obama is refusing to wear the American flag lapel pin. Frankly, I think its silly that he decided to make a statement of NOT wearing it and that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to make a bigger issue of it. Including me by writing this post.

I’ve seen articles and posts about that lapel pin that are extreme at both ends of the spectrum. I don’t see the reason for the hoopla. I didn’t like the implication of one of the reasons he gave for not wearing the pin. Among other things he said, ‘I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great ….’. Will make this country great? Yeah, I didn’t like that at all. But he’s a candidate, not the President. We don’t have to vote him into office.

I admit that it seems odd to me that someone who wants to be President of the United States would have an issue with wearing an American flag pin, but then Obama wasn’t raised in America, so why would he? When he was asked about the absence of the ever-present pin on his lapel he chose to wax philosophic about it rather than just giving a simple answer. That long explanation has turned into a tidal wave of criticism of him for not wearing the pin.

I don’t think him wearing the pin or not wearing the pin has anything at all to do with his patriotism. I don’t think it has anything to do with anyone’s patriotism. I also don’t think that he talked too much about it because he’s not sophisticated enough to understand that by talking about it he made it into an issue.

I think he made an issue of not wearing the pin to appeal to a segment of his hoped-for contingency. Its just politics.

My father was a patriot. He was a Marine in the South Pacific in World War II. All of my uncles, who were of age, fought in that war. My parent’s friends and relatives lived through that time with uncertainty as to its outcome. They sent their men to war and some didn’t come back and some came back broken. They all fought under and for the American Flag.

My husband and many of my friends fought in Vietnam, under and for the American Flag. My son is fighting in Iraq now under and for the American Flag and all that it stands for. Many of my childrens’ friends are also fighting in what is called the Global War on Terrorism.

My father was raised in a disciplined family and the Marine Corp further solidified his sense of discipline and hard work. I didn’t know it growing up, but as an adult I can look back and see so many ways that discipline permeated his life. When we went camping we had to have the campground ’squared away’ before we could do anything else. We did our work before we played. When he raised the American Flag on a pole he had erected in our front yard, it was done properly and with reverence. Even as an older man, he went through the ceremony of raising that flag and lowering it with dignity. He never handled it carelessly. I remember as a young child standing next to him and immolating his actions. He called me his ‘little helper’ and he taught me how to fold the flag, how to never let it touch the ground, how to not leave it out at night or in bad weather. He taught me how to respect it.

The flag is just a piece of cloth. but its a piece of cloth that stands for something. It represents all that is good about our country. It represents, freedom, our national pride, our national strength and the blood of every patriot who has died to defend her.

Yes, its a symbol and some think symbols just don’t matter. But I think of Francis Scott Key who penned the words to the Star Spangled Banner and the meaning that flag had to the people who fought so valiantly for our right to be a nation. Through the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air they were able to see that the American flag still stood. That piece of cloth meant they were not defeated and gave them renewed hope. Its a symbol that means something.

I’m glad Obama won’t wear the American flag on his lapel. That’s the same flag that has draped the coffin of every American who has given his life in battle for this country. It represents too much to be used in a political game.

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Others posting on this from one side or the other: The Pirate’s Cove, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Captain’s Quarters, Ed Driscoll, Stuck on Stupid, Sister Toldjah, Leaning Up Straight, STACLU, Constitutionally Right, Bloodthirsty Liberal, Scared Monkeys, Urban Grounds