Old Glory — Long May She Wave
You're not going to like everything that exists in the world. That's just a fact of life. It is also something that most functioning adults cime to realize and eventually make their peace with early on in adulthood.
At least, that's how members of my generation learned how to do things. So did members of previous generations. For the record, I am a member of what people like to call "Generation X."
It really isn't a difficult concept to grasp. Notice I said most functioning adults are able to understand what I'm saying. I didn't say it's something easy for smart people to get. You don't have to be a member of MENSA to process what I'm saying. You just have to be able to function. Nobody is perfect. We're all broken. But we do whatever we have to do to keep moving forward.
Nutshell version: You play the hand you're dealt.
In this life, there are going to be things that you like, and things that you dislike. There are going to be things you love, and there's going to be things you hate. There is no such thing as a perfect world. Utopia is a place that does not exist.
And here it comes — none of us are special. In the grand scheme of things we are all just a blip in the 4.6 billion year timeline. If you don't like something, the universe isn't going to change it to please you. Like what you like, and realize there is very little you can do to change that which rubs you the wrong way.
Nutshell version: THE WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU.
Recently, I wrote an article saying despite all her flaws, America is still the greatest country in the world. While we may not be the shining city on the hill we used to be, we are still the guiding light must of the world follows. For all our imperfections, throngs of people still clamor to come taste the American Dream.
One of our inalienable rights is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Among other freedoms, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech — we are free to say what we want and criticize who, and what, we want, as long as our speech does not cause someone harm.
As a blogger, I embrace this freedom. A lot of my articles are criticisms about someone or something. My intention is not to convince you I'm right and you're wrong. I am simply sharing my analysis and opinion of any given topic I choose to write about.
I couldn't care less if people agree or disagree with me, and I've finally gotten to the point where I don't care what people think, or say, about me or my writing. Since I started this blog, I've received several reviews. Some good, most bad. I've been called everything from homosexual slurs, irrelevant, idiotic, stupid, and my personal favorite — I was ridiculed because my fiancé left me. The negativity used to get to me so much I considered shutting down the blog, until I spoke to a friend and fellow blogger who told me I'd have to ignore the negativity and grow a thicker skin.
Again, nobody can change what criticism is leveled at them, particularly on social media and particularly from cowards who hide behind the veil of anonymity. Publishing your thoughts and words is going to expose you to all kinds.
All that said, members of newer generations and older people who have been infected by the sensitivity of the thin-skinned have decided to adopt the theory that the world does revolve around them, and if you're doing something they don't like, they want it changed, now. Not because it's wrong, because they just don't like it and it offends them.
When I was a student at The University of Texas at Brownsville, I was studying in the library when a violent thunder and lightning storm hit campus. I was sitting along the windows facing Gorgas Hall when I noticed the American flag began to whip violently in the strong winds and make the flagpole sway badly. Without an umbrella, I went outside in the downpour and took the flag off the pole. Making sure it didn't touch the ground, I took it to the President's Office, folded it as best I could, and gave it to the president's secretary. I didn't want the flag to be damaged or ripped off the pole.
Coming on the heels of Flag Day, one-hit-wonder Macy Gray made a declaration for the thin-skinned on social media. She released statements saying the American flag should be replaced because it is "tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect." She further goes in to say "no longer represents democracy and freedom."
The fact that she'd make ignorant statements like that proves the American flag absolutely stands for freedom and democracy. I wonder if North Korea or China would allow someone to take to the internet and criticize a symbol of their national pride.
You can burn an American flag in protest and in public without being arrested, as long as you own the flag and you don't burn anything else down. I wonder if you can burn the flag in protest in countries like Iran.
But perhaps the biggest slap in the face to America and her flag is the comparison she drew to one of our country's most recognizable symbols of hate.
"The Confederate battle flag, which was crafted as a symbol of opposition to the abolishment of slavery, is just recently tired. We don’t see it much anymore...When the stormers rained on the nation’s most precious hut, waving Old Glory – the memo was received: the American flag is its replacement."
She really didn't compare the American flag to a flag embraced by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists like the Ku Klux Klan, did she?
She did.
She then went on to say the flag shouldn't have white stripes because America is not pure. Instead, the stripes should be off-white because the United States is broken. She also suggests the flag should have 52 stars to represent Puerto Rico and our nation's capital. They should also be different skin colors to represent our cultural and ethnic diversity.
I suppose we're just going to keep on shredding the idea of the melting pot and keep turning into a big stew pot.
I wonder if Miss Gray knows the only way a star is added to the flag is when a new state is admitted to the Union, like when the flag was changed in 1956 with the addition of Alaska and Hawaii.
Puerto Rico and Washington DC are not states. I wonder if Miss Gray knows there are 14 American Territories around the world. You'd need to add a dozen more stars in your new "anybody makes the cut" flag.
I'm not particularly worried about Gray's outcry. The American flag has withstood a Revolution, a Civil War, two World Wars, and dozens of other conflicts and wars along the way, including the Cold War when the Soviet Union brought us to the brink of nuclear annihilation.
Among the rubble of the Twin Towers, the flag stood tall. It may have been tattered, but it stood watch over the first responders who were at Ground Zero.
Estimates say close to 1.3 million soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen have died defending freedom and the flag.
The flag has survived countless changes during America's 145 years of existence. Throughout the changes in government, through social revolution, the Civil Rights movement, pandemics, war, and death, the American flag has stood tall.
It will survive the nonsensical tirades of a musician who was last relevant in 1999.
Macy Gray's comments make my stomach turn. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing someone would think their opinion could change the most recognizable national symbol on the entire planet, but it is her absolute right to share her opinion, no matter how ridiculous and utterly stupid it might be.
That's exactly what the American flag stands for.
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, an early 20th century writer probably said it best in her biography of French philosopher Voltaire:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
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