Guest Blogger Two!!

I've chosen another student essay to share. The essay in "Guest Blogger One" was written by a young man who, at least on one side of his family, was several generations removed from his immigrant past. The author of the essay below was born to immigrant parents. Portions of her essay brought tears to my eyes. While I have her permission to edit out the website research included in the middle section, I chose to leave it in although I feel it interrupts, to some degree, the emotional pull of the piece for an external audience. 

The statistics on bumper stickers included in this essay are certainly not scientific. But the essay brings up a point many Americans seem to forget. We are not at war against Iraq. Let me repeat. We are not at war against Iraq. Every time I hear someone comment on how "Those damn Iraqis are driving up the price of gas" or elide "the war in Iraq" to "the war with Iraq" I want to wave this essay in his face.

Be assured that students in my classes do indeed write from a variety of political perspectives. But I've offered this assignment for at least six terms now, off and on. It is always optional, and maybe three or four students a year elect to take it on. To receive two such thoughtful responses within a week was heartening. This was a good class. And these two writers were part of the reason why.

America – Love it or Leave it

by Sarah C.

The Stars and Stripes. The Red, White and Blue. Both of these terms are synonymous with the American flag, and the American flag represents a nation based on the principles of justice, freedom and equal opportunity for all. In search of those basic principles, a small collection of colonies fought for independence from a mighty nation a little over two centuries ago. The original American flag had thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars in a blue background. As the U.S. expanded and eventually blossomed into a nation of fifty states, the flag was modified to have fifty stars rather than thirteen. The American flag is a symbol of those basic principles that allowed thirteen colonies to blossom into fifty united states.

I respect that this nation is based on these principles and strives to uphold them, and even though I am thankful to benefit from them, when I look at the American flag, I don’t get that warm, fuzzy feeling of love for the United States. On the contrary, I actually feel lost. I feel like I can’t wholeheartedly be proud of my flag because it no longer represents justice, freedom and equal opportunity for all. Now the flag represents the United States government, and whether or not you proudly display the flag or the image of the flag depicts whether or not you support the United States government and its actions. If I don’t agree with the actions of my government, and I don’t feel pride when I look at my country’s flag, am I not a true American?

As an Arab American with a mother from Syria and a father from Iraq, I have a cultural connection with and love for three different countries. When the nation I live in and have been raised in goes to war in the nation I have grown to love because it is my heritage and the home of my relatives, I am torn in the middle. I want my country to free the people of Iraq from a corrupt dictator, but I also don’t want my Iraqi family in danger. I want our troops out of Iraq, but I also want them to hurry up and help Iraq stand on her own two feet and be the magnificent nation she once was. I love Iraq, Syria, and the United States, but I am disappointed in the United States. I was able to witness the fear my dad had every day when the U.S. was bombing Iraq. During that time of war, the news was always on and his eyes were always glued to the T.V. while he was also trying to get in contact with his parents in Baghdad to make sure they were still alive. How can I feel unqualified love for my country when it has destroyed my father’s home, killed thousands of innocent civilians, and caused so much destruction that my grandparents had to move to Syria? And yet, while I am proud to be half Syrian and half Iraqi, how can I feel the same pride, love, and loyalty that Syrians and Iraqis feel towards their separate nations? Which flag is truly mine?

I want to feel loyalty and a strong sense of nationality to a flag I can call my own. When I watch a soccer game on T.V. between two different countries, and each side is drunk with love and support of its country and team, I become jealous of the crowd because I know I couldn’t show that much pride for Iraq or Syria, let alone the U.S. I can’t see an American flag without feeling slightly disconnected from the people around me. Even seeing the colors red, white and blue together causes that same feeling of uneasiness. However, I don’t believe this feeling is unprovoked or even unpatriotic. As I said before, the flag doesn’t stand for what it originally did. The American flag now symbolizes the American government. And to don, display, or fly the American flag means that you fully support the government’s policies. If you don’t support the American government, you don’t display the American flag in any way. Let me show you. 

At www.bumperart.com, a website where you can buy all kinds of bumper stickers, you can choose from a variety of categories. Among those categories are “pro-Bush,” “anti-Bush,” “pro-war,” and “anti-war.” I went through and counted how many bumper stickers from each category had a symbol of the American flag or the colors red, white, and blue on them. Here are the results:

• Pro-Bush: 14 out of 25 = 56%
• Anti-Bush: 37 out of 184 = 20%

• Pro-War: 7 out of 46 = 15%

• Anti-War: 5 out of 84 = 6%

Anti-Bush bumper sticker vs. Pro-Bush bumper sticker

Anti-war bumper sticker vs. Pro-war bumper sticker

The pro-Bush and pro-war categories both had a greater percentage of bumper stickers with either a flag or the colors red, white and blue on them than did their counter category. So, if you support Bush (the government) and the war (the government’s actions), you are more likely to display the flag and/or its colors.

OK, so maybe there wouldn’t be such a correlation between the flag and support of the American government if I lived in the north where the population leans to the more liberal side. After all, it doesn’t help that I live in Texas, the state that proudly claims to be the home of our good old cowboy president. Well, at www.bumpertalk.com, a website similar to www.bumperart.com but based out of Oregon, I performed the same analysis to the site’s “Bush No” and “Bush Yes” categories. The results:

• Bush Yes: 13 out of 40 = 33%
• Bush No: 3 out of 40 = 8%

Even in Oregon the image or colors of the flag are used more as a signifier of a person who agrees with the actions of the United States, but I already knew that. However, that may be the market playing a part in such statistics. While Oregon’s voting results may suggest a largely democratic and anti-war population, a smart business owner whose company is web-based knows where the money lies. He knows that not only the people of Oregon but an entire nation will be making online purchases of his bumper stickers and therefore, he will not make the majority of his merchandise cater to the preferences of the population of Oregon. Rather, he will make more pro-Bush and pro-war merchandise available for sale because that is what the majority of the United States citizens will be searching for.

I guess the problem is that I am in love with too many places. I have been traveling since before I was born. My mom found out she was pregnant with me while she was visiting my dad’s family in Iraq and she flew back to the U.S. right away. Since then I have traveled to eleven countries outside the U.S. My family has spent countless vacations in Mexico, three entire summers in Syria, and I just came back from India and have fallen in love with her as well. Every time my parents ask me where I want to live when I have my own family, I never have an answer. I don’t know where I want to live. The Middle East is in my blood and I want to marry someone who is from the same background as I am so that we can both understand our appreciation and love of the culture, but America is my home. Every time I come back from traveling I appreciate the luxuries and lifestyle I know so much more, but I also pine for the excitement and unpredictability I experience when visiting another country and culture. I guess I just wish that while harboring all these feelings, I could also feel an unmistakable sense of love and belonging to one particular country.

Maybe that is just the difficulty with being someone like me. Being a “Something-American” means that your heart will belong to two or more different lands. And while I have learned to cope with the strange sense of disconnection that I get when I see the American flag anywhere but on a flag pole, I am still surprised when I see bumper stickers that say things such as “My American Flag Offend You? Then Move to Iraq” and “America. Love It or Leave It.” And while I realize that such a statement only comes from extremely narrow-minded Americans, it still hurts to feel once again that I belong neither here nor there. So I’ll just keep doing what I have been doing: I’ll keep America all around me, Syria in my memories, an Iraq-shaped charm on a bracelet around my wrist, and all three of them in my heart.

Guest Blogger One!

Each time I teach, I offer my students the chance to write about the American flag.  One option asks them to notice how many times and in how many situations they encounter the flag or its image in a 24-hour period. Does the proliferation of the flag as a "text" enrich or diminish its meaning?  The following essay was written by a freshman, and I'm posting it with his permission. I will be happy to forward any comments his way.

Patriotism for Sale

by Korey C.

I pledge allegiance to the bikini top, the cell phone cover, the sugar cookie, and the boxing gloves of the United States of America, and to the republic for which they stand, one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Is this what America has become? Is this the only strength the symbol of liberty and justice has left? Is it possible that the flag, the symbol of a great nation, stands for nothing more than cheap vendor’s merchandise and the faults of a country? The world is changing and doing so every day (for better or worse is up to the individual), but hear what I, a single voice in a sea of opinion, have to say.

I am nineteen years old, an American, and the son of an Irish American man and a Korean American woman. My parents both attended college but only my father finished and obtained a four year degree. They both, undeniably, came from different backgrounds but have been loyal Americans their entire lives. They vote every year and always make a point to fill me in on whatever information they can find on each presidential candidate. On both sides of my family are grandparents, uncles, and cousins with military background, so both my parents know the dedication and strength it takes to serve our country. Now with all of this in mind, I recently realized that through my entire life not my parents, brothers, or I have ever owned a single possession that had the image of the flag upon it. The sad truth is that many people will read this and say, “How American can you really be if you don’t own anything with the flag on it?” Perhaps they are right, but as I look at the country I live in I do not see the America that so many people believe it to be. I see a nation full of discrimination, poverty, greed, and arrogance with the flag as its calling card.

How our forefathers would weep if they saw what the flag has become today. After walking through the mall for less than an hour I was able to fill an entire page, consisting of three columns, with useless “patriotic” merchandise. Swimsuits, baseball caps, cookies, press-on nails, boxing gloves, purses, even a cross embellished with the stars and stripes. Out of all these bizarre items a few in particular caught my attention. The first, and most puzzling, was the large metal cross that had been painted over with the stars and stripes. What exactly is the message here? Perhaps it is an item for Christian individuals who are very patriotic and simply want to express both their religion and devotion to their country. Then again, could it be implying that “true” Americans are both Christian and patriotic? Is a specific religious background now part of the criteria to be a good American?

It is messages like this that have affected the country for years. Before my grandparents, on my mother’s side, came to America they were followers of Buddha, but not long after reaching New York City in 1946 they converted to Catholicism. I asked my Halmeoni (Grandmother) why she and my Harabeoji (Grandfather) converted after coming to America. The only answer I could muster out of her was “It was time.” It is known that South Korea was and is divided with half the population being Christian of some sort and the other half Buddhist. The religious backgrounds are usually set by decades of family lines so conversion is rarely seen. So I was shocked that my grandmother, who is one of the strongest women I know, fell victim to a sort of national peer pressure. So here is America telling the peaceful Asian couple to buy a flag, convert, and fit in. The symbol for liberty is needed to shield others from discrimination.

Then I saw items as simple as a cookie being eaten by a small child. Could there be any greater insult to the American flag than slapping it on a cookie, throwing it in the oven, and then passing it out to small children to consume? The flag is supposed to a sacred symbol Americans can stand behind with pride. I can recall being yelled at in boy scouts when I was no older than six for letting the flag touch the ground when I was color guard for the evening meeting. Now here it is resting comfortably in the belly of a toddler. The sheer thought of owning a pair of “patriotic” boxing gloves or cell phone covers should be enough to show how watered down the image of the flag has become. The flag is a supposed to be a beacon to light our darkest hour and yet it has become a candle flickering in the wind. With it we can barely see our own noses in front of us, much less where the country needs to be.

When is the last time you can recall the nation being unified behind the flag? The last time I remember the entire country being in agreement with the flag was 9/11. Every house as far as the eye could see flew an American flag in its front yard. Flags hung in windows, from mailboxes, car windows, and of course every business establishment in town. The flag was a beacon saying “Hey look at me I’m an American and I’m patriotic, so talk to me or buy my stuff.” It is sad to me that through all the hardships our country has faced over the years the only thing that can bring everyone together is a direct attack. The people need a common enemy to face together. They do not care for death caused by natural disaster, disease, or gang violence as long as they don’t “know” that it is going on. They only become one voice when there is someone the entire country can hate together. Americans are the spoiled children of the world; they do what they want when they want.

The first thing that comes to mind when I see and American flag is, sadly, the Bush Presidency. Almost instantly upon seeing a flag I relate it to the war and all the disaster America has had to endure during George Bush’s term in office. Sometime I hate myself for this and only want to see the flag as the flag, but no matter how hard I try I can not help but go straight to president. I think there are many people out there who share my problem which is why since 9/11 we have seen the flag almost completely removed from suburban areas. I know that on my hometown street the flag flew in just about every house’s yard and when I left home for school it flew in only four. I think that’s the country’s biggest problem; when things are not going the way everybody wants we immediately blame the president whose calling card has become the flag. It is sad and very unfair in a way. Now do not get me wrong. I’m not exactly pro Bush, but then again I’m not exactly pro anything. I like to think of myself as an observer. What I see is a country divided. I see citizens of our great nation making the American flag a joke. I see people discriminating against others just because they refuse to fly the flag on something they own. Being an American has a price and it’s there for anyone willing to pay.