We use flags to stand for
that which we stand for:
family, team, town, country,
corporation . . . even God.
We have a right to our flags
but the rub comes when the right
of display rubs up against
another’s right to be free
of the harms of bigotry.
Context and consequence,
next to motive and manner,
do seem to govern our flags.
Our War of Independence
was won, so the Stars and Stripes
wave over our nation’s pride—
and past: of ethnic cleansing
and slavery and abuse of
women and minorities.
Our most precious symbols are a mélange.
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