And forever in peace may you wave

Last summer I purchased an American flag from the office of U.S. Senator Richard Burr. I have since hung it from my balcony on many occasions, the anniversary of 9/11, Memorial Day, and now today on the Fourth of July. But as much as I enjoyed putting up the flag this morning and watching it wave from the third floor overlooking a good portion of the parking area at my apartment complex, there was a bit of sadness in doing so this morning. Part of it was knowing that because my lease is up soon, this will probably be the last time I am able to fly Old Glory from my apartment balcony. The larger source of the sadness, however, came from knowing that on this most patriotic of all holidays, my flag would very likely be the only one displayed in the entire Alta Springs apartment complex.

When I was a kid, on the Fourth of July I could walk down the street and see an American flag on every block. Yet in the past couple of years, I don’t notice as many flags anymore. This is even more baffling when you take into consideration that our nation is at war overseas and Americans are being targeted by terrorists living among us. I am not sure why this is. It could be that I have been living in a rental complex and people who rent are much less likely to own, not to mention display a flag. It could also be that Chapel Hill is politically liberal and those on the left are less patriotic, at least according to Ann Coulter. But I am thinking that perhaps the real causehas todo with what Americans are learning in schools nowadays. That instead of being taught that America is a special country that has done great things for people everywhere, they’re more likely to learn about the bad things that America has done. I suspect what I am seeing is the logical result of this type of education. In the past months, I have read books (Telling the Truth by Lynne Cheney and The Death of the West by Patrick Buchanan) that have made the point that when you teach young Americans that America is no better than any other country in the world, as adults, they will be much less likely to support their country.

Yesterday as I was at the Undergraduate Library working on cover letters, it was noon and the song You’re A Grand Old Flag chimed from the Bell Tower. I began to instinctively hum along to it and remembering that I learned the lyrics in the fifth grade. It then dawned on me that very few college students today probably know the lyrics to that song. So perhaps it is a good thing that this is the last time my American flag will be flying over Alta Springs since I have a feeling she is not only feeling lonely but also beginning to feel like a foreigner in a strange land.