With Flag Day (June 14) just past, I was reminded of a rather embarrassing incident in my life. In 1968, I was a young sailor on my first ship in the Navy. I was standing the 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. watch, and it was my responsibility to raise the flag at sunrise. At the precise moment the bugle sounded, and I ran the ensign up the jack staff on the fantail of the ship. To my extreme horror, the flag was flying in the breeze upside down, the international distress signal. Fortunately, an older seaman was nearby to help remedy the situation and save my nascent naval career. Ever since then, I have been punctilious when it comes to displaying the American flag. 

I was therefore happy to see an increase in the posting of the American flag several years ago. When my parents finally had enough money saved to leave the Bronx and buy a house in suburbia, the first thing that my father did was screw a holder into a tree in the front yard and fly the Stars and Stripes. 

He felt that this country was the strongest bastion of democracy in the world, and he wanted to avail himself of his first amendment freedom, the one in which the government cannot prevent citizens from expressing their true feelings regarding an issue. 

My dad, like many of us, became quite agitated when he witnessed flag burning during the Vietnam War protests, but he never felt that the protesters should be punished for their actions. He understood that flag burning was speech, protected by the first amendment in the Bill of Rights.

I was chagrined when I became aware that the American flag, our national emblem, was being used as something of a weapon. I first took notice of this when Sen. John McCain was accused of being unpatriotic for not wearing a metallic flag pin on his lapel. This was John McCain, a decorated Navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam and held prisoner and tortured for six years, the same John McCain who refused early release from his barbaric prison because he knew that, as the son of a serving Navy admiral, his release would be propagandized and thus reflect poorly upon his father and his country. His patriotism was questioned by many who never served their country for one day in uniform, because he did not feel the need to wear a cheap tin flag that was probably made in China.

McCain never gave in to his critics, but when it made headlines that Barack Obama was flagless during his presidency, the pressure became too much, and he finally donned the pin that identified him as a true American. I can only speculate that the presidential seal on the podium from which he spoke wasn’t adequate to identify him as the leader of the free world. 

I have had my patriotism questioned many times by those who felt that the candidate I voted for was not a “true American.” The fact that I joined the Navy at 17 during the war in Vietnam, while still in high school, and then became a police officer seemed irrelevant to them. My voting record was enough to make me suspect.

American flags displayed on homes started to become more than symbols of pride in one’s country. They were challenges to those whose houses remained unadorned, bereft of the national ensign. 

It did not matter that many of those displaying the flag had not a clue as to the etiquette for the proper display of the flag. I have seen flags that have been left out in rain and snow, at night without proper illumination, and others still flying that were torn and tattered, well beyond their retirement date. 

I like to think of the flag as emblematic of our country. It is made up of strips of cloth of different colors, sewn together with strong thread to become one. It is supposed to be that symbol that unites us. 

The culmination of this flag weaponization for me was when a flag, purported to have been carried by the insurrectionists on the January 6th attack on the Capitol, was used as a prop during a gathering featuring former Trump advisor Steve Bannon as the attendees pledged their allegiance to the flag. The fact that Confederate flags were carried alongside American flags by those wishing to arrest and kill elected officials should give one pause, but to then fetishize a flag that was used by those committing a criminal act is beyond reprehensible. 

The flag containing the 13 stripes and 50 stars ought to bring us together as a people, just as it did when it was raised by the five Marines and one Navy corpsman on Mount Suribachi during World War II. 

It should not be used as a test of one’s citizenship or the property of only one political party, and it certainly should never become a literal weapon used against police officers who stood against those who decided that it was their mission to overturn a free and fair election as they attacked the building where democracy lives.

Peter McTiernan lives in Sullivan County, NY.