noFalse Patriotism

     I grew up on military bases across the nation.  I took NJROTC in high school.  It was the class to teach new recruits to the Navy the ways of the Navy while they were in school.  I know the rules to "respecting the flag." 

     I went to the beach today.  I met up with some friends and family and friends of family and family of friends.  The weather was nice until it made a significant swing.  Clouds then rain...then hard rain.  Thunder and lightning.  Eventually the rain slowed down and we began to gather everything that all the Mommies brought to the beach: chairs, bags, toys, wagons, umbrellas, coolers, and other attempts to keep the children occupied.  The Exodus from the beach grew quickly.  Traffic couldn't have picked a worse time to get heavy.  On the drive home (read: somewhere else) we were hit with thunderous rain, thunder, and lightning.  There was heavy traffic due to closed lanes everywhere. 

     When the traffic gets slow I find myself more aware of my surroundings.  Instead of watching the white and yellow lines, I have time to see individual people doing the things they do along the side of the road.  Driving 20 miles per hour I noticed two men in a car lot removing the little flags that they attach to the antennae of each of the cars along the street.  You are not supposed to fly an American flag during the rain.  It is one of many respect rules.  So at first glance these men were trying to respect the flag.  They cared enough about our country to save our flags from drowning in a sea of Mother Nature. 

     Except it has been raining for an hour already.  The flags have been battered about.  Where were these heroes at the beginning of the storm?  Have they been sent out to save the flags after realizing that it would be a bad public relations move to let the flags get rained on?  Maybe they didn't want to have to buy new flags; possibly thinking that the wind and rain would destroy them. 

     Patriotism will be the same victim of commercialism that any other sanctity of human life has fallen victim to.  It's already starting.  Flags have been a big seller in many different forms from magnets to intricate designs employing the stars and stripes.  People have been buying stickers and magnets for their cars stating their love of our country, our troops, our presidents, our presidential candidates... how much of our money goes to prove to our neighbors that we are a GOOD citizen of the United States?  My friend had a flag sticker half destroyed on his car window.  He made his wife scrape the rest off so that nobody would think that they tried to rip the American flag off of their car.  He was upset about "the appearance"   he knew that he likes America, so  he didn't want anybody else thinking that he was making a statement against the flag. 

    Function or fashion?