I'll just come right out and say it:  I cannot *stand* the flag-waving "I'll beat you up if you say anything bad about my country" style of patriotism that was suddenly so prevalent in the days and weeks following 9-11.

Why?  We already know I'm more a liberal than a conservative.  But I was a Girl Scout, and the roots of how I truly feel about this country and my own patriotism go back to that first Brownie troop.  Our scout leader was 6 houses away in my neighborhood.  I knew each and every neighbor by name, and no first names either, Mr and Mrs Smith, Mr and Mrs. Johnson, etc.  Directly across the street from the Scout Leader's house was the most beautiful yard in the neighborhood.  A mostly retired man and his wife, not a day went by, sunshine or rain, that you couldn't find him outside.  He must have thousands of tulips surrounding his circular drive, and not a blade of grass in the whole front yard.  Immaculate landscaping... and a flag pole.  Our Brownie and Junior girl scout troop spent many days across the street learning how to properly raise and lower the flag in a Girl Scout ceremony, how to fold it per the US Flag Code, how to care for it, when it should be flown at half-staff, when and how it should be disposed of when damaged, when it can be flown at night, and all the other respect things that go along with it.  I learned years later that this man was our state coordinator for the "Selective Service" program which signs up high school boys for some future draft which they don't have.

Do you see where I'm going already?  Fast-forward thirty years later, and I'm following a latte-swilling mom in her Ford Explorer with the "support the troops" magnetic flag ribbons on her backside.  Faded, and ruining her paint job.  I'm driving behind a big-ol 80's Chevy truck with torn shreds of cloth on the antenna, that I just *know* used to be an American Flag.  I see a faded bumper sticker on a Caprice Classic ironically proclaiming "These Colors Don't Run" ... the whole sticker is nearly white on white.  I drive into my adult neighborhood at 10PM  and see people's flags on their front doorstep, wound around the pole, lonely and forlorn in the dark.  This is NOT respect.  This is NOT love.  This is "I stuck it out there one day and forgot about it, I don't even see it anymore" kind of patriotism.  My dad can beat up your dad.  Agree with me or I'll punch you.

I confess, I do not have many veterans in my family.  I don't know anyone who was personally affected by 9-11.  I'm very much against the war in Iraq.  (Afghanistan I could see the point of but was still against it; how do you declare war in people and not their government? ) I only know one person who has been killed in war.  But I'm going to put my flag up every day this long weekend, and pull it in at dusk, because I do not own a spotlight for it.  I'm going to participate in the National Moment of Remembrance on Monday at 3PM. (http://www.usmemorialday.org/observe.htm)  And in between your sales and bbqs, I ask that you do the same, and really think about what makes our country work, and how we can all work to make it better.

I'm doing it for Shaun Starkovich this year.