The decision regarding the removal of the American flag on the Hampshire College campus is layered with meaning. It’s clear the flag has different symbolic connotations that reflect the diversity of American sensibilities. I trust we are big enough as a people to embrace all these nuances.
The idea of burning the American flag on Veterans Day is heartbreaking to me. But I am an American and I understand the meaning of dissent even when I disagree with the action. It’s important to remember that open dissent is a freedom that is unique to few countries on earth.
But all forms of dissent have the same goal: to elicit a response.
One response to the removal of the flag at Hampshire College came from a VFW-organized demonstration outside the campus on Nov. 27. At the rally the message conveyed from veterans and community members was clearly heard at the scene, through live Facebook feeds and newspaper coverage: put the flag back.
One of the speakers stated that it is soldiers who provide us with freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and all the other liberties in the Bill of Rights that the constitution Ensures. Certainly American soldiers protect civilians abroad and at home where democratic freedoms thrive. Our soldiers are willing to die to protect those freedoms and that is a sacred bond American citizens have with our military service members.
But our freedoms do not only exist in a void to be protected and fought for. They are there to be lived for and used to enhance our experience of being alive.
For me personally, the American flag is a symbol of American joy and sorrow. We drape the streets with flags each July to celebrate our hard-won independence. We mourn the loss of soldiers and heads of state by lowering the flag to half-staff. In distress, we fly it upside down.
As a teenager in the 1970s, I watched the nightly telecasts of the flag-draped coffins returning our soldiers home from Southeast Asia. Those soldiers were wrapped in America’s grace.
Our right to express our opposition to unjust laws, destructive actions of our government or to use the flag in an evolving expression of grief over the mistreatment of vulnerable people in the society is what we live for.
We need each other now. Let’s listen and respond to one another with open minds and respect for our differences. Let’s see the flag for all that it is and all that it can be.
Sydney Bolden
Easthampton