A Memorial Day Message From an (Old) DUer
Dear DUers,
A friendly message from an old (capital “O”) DUer: I sat outside this evening and looked at my American flag flap in the wind (windy in Central Texas this evening!) and, at once, I was overcome and sanguine. A symbol is a symbol is a symbol. It’s just a symbol, after all, and Christ and the founding fathers (why do I draw that parallel, good ol’ Irish boy, I guess) abhorred idols. It’s poor practice to supplant the people and things that deserve our adoration with a proxy, some ‘thing’ to which we pledge our devotion, gratitude, and pride. And yet, in a world full of so many shortcomings, so many goals not met, so many of us making do, ‘without,’ it makes sense – indeed, it is human nature – to supplant the actual and real objects of our devotion and desire with a stand-in, with a proxy. And so, I stood there, observing the symbol, that is so routinely, and without second thought, called in as a prop in countless politician’s call to arms, rallies to engage in practices they, and their constituencies, know to be unconstitutional an un-American, this symbol that is used as a stand-in for so many ideals and morals that so many find impure and unconstitutional, I got to thinking about the virtues of this symbol that are virtuous and that are pure.
I’m a 36-year-old man with three children. Both my father and my father-in-law served in the armed services. Both did tours of Viet Nam, both received Purple Hearts. Neither are particularly proud of their service and both continue struggle to reconcile the logic of that conflict in which they became men. My point is that I have never experienced war the way my father, and the scores of kids fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have. I have no idea what they have gone through, can’t even begin to imagine it.
George Carlin said, “I leave symbols to the symbol-minded,” but he also said (paraphrasing) “[regardless of its many faults] America is still the best place to be.” Carlin was one of my all-time biggest heroes and I know there is a lot of love for him here on DU and it is for this reason that I invoke him now and it is to iterate this point: that, whatever your politics, whatever your morals, your belief system, I don’t believe that it is proper to invoke the blood of soldiers to browbeat others to pledge allegiance to a symbol, but I do love this country. I love my countrymen, each and every one. I love you soldiers, those of you brave enough to do what you do, who invoke a strong reaction in me to make me want to embrace complete strangers in public (I don’t do this, by the way). I love you freaked out artists, so uncomfortable in your own skin, seeking out whatever it is inside of you that pushes you in directions even you understand (I know this trait does not know boundaries of the state, but American artists are especially ground breaking and cutting edge!), I love you jocks, I love you engineering nerds, I love you greedy asshole bankers, I love you twisted politicians, I love you teachers, I love you wealthy stay-at-home moms, I love you struggling inner-city poor, I love you immigrants, you small business people, etc., etc., etc….
And so, what I realized, as I stared at this symbol, is that, with all its ugliness, with all its warts, with its flaws, that it’s perhaps likely that we may be in decline, that we may have already experienced its apex, and be on the way out, I love America and Americans. I love the idea of what we stand for, whether we actually stand for it or not. It’s the possibility of what we can be that keeps me going, that keeps the fire in my belly for this experiment. I love each of you, dear DUers. Peace and love and a Happy Memorial Day to you and yours.
Love,
HipHopNation
PS - GO SPURS! 
= new reply since forum marked as read
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, more wonderful, still more wonderful, and yet again: wonderful.
Bravo!
Been so long, hope you and yours are happy, healthy, and well.
