Friends, not since America's bicentennial in 1976 have we paid so much attention to our original, "Betsy Ross" flag. Not so long ago the flag was uncontroversial. Barack Obama flew it at his 2013 inauguration. The Left has taken a definite leftward turn since then, however, and as a result things which were patriotic five minutes ago are now beyond the pale. Get used to it, because the liberals have so much more in store for us... Of course, they may not have counted on the pushback they're now getting. My latest article is about the foolishness of disrespecting the Betsy Ross flag -- and the pressing need for Americans to rally around it, and around America itself.
Americans Should Fly the Betsy Ross
Flag With Pride
Americans
were rightly bewildered to learn recently that, in the eyes of Colin
Kaepernick and the Nike Corporation, the “Betsy Ross flag” that
flew over the young United States in the late 18th
century is a supposedly troubling and racist symbol. Kaepernick
observed that the flag flew in an “era of slavery,” and that was
all the prodding Nike needed to scrap the planned release of
patriotic sneakers emblazoned with the offensive flag.
Social media has
been in an uproar ever since, and with good reason.
Since our nation
was born in 1776, dozens of flags have flown over it. Almost all have
incorporated the horizontal red and white stripes that were first
observed in the “Grand Union Flag” that in turn borrowed them
from the flag of the (British) East India Company. The Betsy Ross
flag added the dark blue field in the upper-left and the “new
constellation” of 13 stars. Every American flag since then has been
an elaboration of this original design.
Contrary to myth,
there is little evidence that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia upholsterer,
contributed much to the design of the flag that now bears her name,
although she may have suggested the five-pointed star instead of the
six-pointed star in order to save herself some bother. Not exactly a
profile in hyper-patriotism, but none of this prevented the Betsy
Ross story, which posited George Washington and Mrs. Ross designing
the flag together, from becoming national lore after our centennial
celebrations in 1876. The country needed its heroes and heroines, and
Betsy Ross fit the bill. It is an irony of Nike's current denigration
of the flag that the practical effect of their historical revisionism
is to erase one of America's first (and, for many years, one of its
only) heroines from public memory.
The point of
displaying the Betsy Ross flag, though, has never been to celebrate
Betsy Ross, but to celebrate America in her formative years. The
young republic, called The United States of America (and spoken of
mostly in the plural until the Civil War) was a bold experiment in
liberty and constitutionalism in an era of monarchical tyranny. It
heralded the rise of a more individualistic and humane political
philosophy that would make possible startling and unprecedented
improvements in human welfare. Thus, the symbols of early America
seem, on the face of it, something to celebrate rather than bemoan.
The
late 18th
century was an “era of slavery,” yes, but that was true
throughout the world. Not a single country had abolished slavery, and
few were inclined even to take the concept of abolition seriously.
That is an indictment of America, but it is more accurately an
indictment of humanity,
which made copious use of slaves from ancient times until the
mid-19th
century.
If,
therefore, the Betsy Ross flag is tainted by slavery, it is no more
tainted than every
symbol
in wide use before the modern age, from the Christian cross to the
Roman eagle to China's Yin and Yang. Should all these symbols be
banned from modern apparel, and declared permanently offensive,
because the people who used them also, in some cases, owned slaves?
That would be absurd.
While
many Americans may have limited appreciation for the Betsy Ross flag,
which is seldom flown today, they ought to understand that the
ultimate motivation for Colin Kaepernick and his fellow travelers on
the far left is not the denigration of American history, but of
America itself. This country, which was born to renew and expand
human freedom, is, to the Left, instead a dark, sinister place of
almost unparalleled wickedness and cruelty (unparalleled because
liberals refuse to acknowledge wickedness and cruelty when it is
practiced by people they like). The erasure of the symbols of
America's past presages, for Kaepernick and his ilk, the obliteration
of everything that America was
and
is,
to be replaced by the newfangled values of political correctness,
“wokeness,” and enforced equality.
It is, in fact, only a matter of time before even the current
American flag must be permanently furled, and replaced with a new
standard that more accurately represents the Marxist utopia that the
Left has in store for us. We will be lucky if even so much as the
red, white, and blue theme of the current flag survives, amid an
explosion of new symbolism and imagery that will represent the
countless ethnicities, genders, and other officially approved
identities that will be mandatory elements of the New Flag of New
America (also known as North Mexico).
Make no mistake: those who seek to erase the Betsy Ross Flag, the
first flag of the United States of America, are really trying to
erase America itself. They are succeeding, frankly, beyond the
wildest dreams and most fevered nightmares of the Founding Fathers,
who understood the fragility of their magnificent creation.
Anti-Americanism has taken deep root in America, and we must, no
matter the cost, turn the tide against it.
The easiest and best first step?
Fly the Betsy Ross flag. Fly it on your front porch. Fly it at your
local school. Fly it over the White House lawn, if you happen to be
the President.
Fly
it everywhere liberals might see it, so they will know that America
is here to stay!
