On the way home from my office the other day I was delighted to see several small American flags affixed atop a lengthy row of fence posts in our Bald Knob neighborhood. They caught me by surprise and a feeling of gratitude welled up. Our neighbors across from us were celebrating Flag Day. This patriotic holiday, stuck between Memorial Day and Independence Day, is often-overlooked. But it’s an important day nonetheless.
For much of our history, the flag has evoked feelings of goodwill and hope. It has served as a symbol of freedom and justice to the oppressed around the world. Those fleeing political tyranny, wrecked economies, and religious persecution have taken shelter under its ideals. The U.S. flag was planted on blood-soaked Omaha beach in Normandy, France 81 years ago, which marked the beginning of the end of Nazism’s evil reign over Europe. It was also planted on Iwo Jima 82 years ago in another costly battle to liberate the east from Japanese tyranny. In hope, it was planted on the moon 56 years ago as the world cheered on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in a feat of human cooperation and technology, to press into an unknown realm.
The flag is also flown abroad. In 2019, Hong Kongers sang our national anthem and hundreds waved the flag in defiance of imperial Chinese designs to stamp out their democratic system and freedoms.
Critics will point to our own abuses and failures done under the auspices of the American flag. Yet also represented by this same flag is a self-correcting mechanism to right wrongs and land on justice. The notorious Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court was rectified in part by the Emancipation Proclamation and 14th Amendment. Plessey v. Ferguson was rectified by Brown v.s Board of Education and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Sundry other wrongs have been rectified under our constitutional system of government.
Celebrated in our system of government is the diffusion of political power found in the checks and balances between our three branches of government. So is federalism and the idea of self government. The rule of law and endowed human rights originate not from government but from God—American ideals, everyone of them. And these have been celebrated the world over. This is why so many immigrants are lining up to become American citizens today. In the last decade there have been nearly 8 million people naturalized as U.S. citizens, with millions more waiting for the opportunity. And there are nearly 35 million more green card applications pending as of 2024. No other nation on earth has such a long line of people waiting to get in. Their desire is to live under the American flag and the values it represents.
Video footage out of Los Angeles last week showed flags waved in protest against ICE in city streets where migrants unauthorized to be here were arrested. It wasn’t the American flag protesters rallied under, but the Mexican flag. Videos showed protesters waving the Mexican flag on top of vandalized cars—an unhelpful image for those advocating for illegal immigrantion. Of course the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom to assemble, as many in L.A. peacefully did. It also protects the freedom to wave foreign flags. The Court has ruled that it even protects burning the U.S. flag, as offensive as it is.
What the Constitution does not protect is violence and rioting. It does not protect the destruction of private property and illegal entry across our border. Nor does it protect or condone political violence—whether J6 insurrectionist Jacob Chansley and his minions who sought to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election results or rioters who torched buildings and looted businesses after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis.
The flag flies at half-staff as a solemn recognition of the dead who’ve served their country. Such is the case this week as evil reared its ugly head once again in Minnesota in an apparent targeted political assassination of Democratic Congresswoman Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman were also targeted, but appear to be recovering. Much is being made of the political affiliation and religious beliefs of the perpetrator, who was arrested Monday. He identified as a fundamentalist Christian, but his gross misreading of Christianity cannot be justified by Jesus’ teachings—namely, that God’s kingdom comes not through murdering opponents but loving them, living peacefully, acting in humility, and extending charity towards their neighbors. Political violence should be eschewed by all believers as it’s clearly not one of the fruits of the Spirit.
It’s abundantly clear that our nation is deeply divided, and just as deeply broken. Not unlike the period during the Civil War, which brings us to another story of the flag. Sergeant William Carney, who served with the 54th Massachusetts, took the faltering U.S. flag from the mortally wounded flag bearer. And though he himself was wounded, pressed on and took pride that the flag he held never touched the ground. His action inspired his fellow soldiers and for his courage became the first black American to be awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor.
Carney fought and served his nation all the while his nation failed to afford him full civil rights. Yet he served for the freedom represented by the flag. The promise of equal rights and Constitutional protections were eventually realized five generations later, but Carney’s service and sacrifice was a downpayment on those ideals..
The Civil War’s Great Emancipator, President Abraham Lincoln, exhorted his fellow Americans to “appeal to the better angels of our nature” in his first inaugural address. May we heed the same call, find the courage to rid ourselves of bitter political resentment, and rally around the shared ideals of our democratic republic. May God bind our wounds and help us heal in the meantime.
Richard Nelson is the executive director of
Commonwealth Policy Center
. He is also the host of the Commonwealth Matters Podcast on Spotify.