And our flag still waves

by Norman Franklin

Norman Franklin

The Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem, was written during a time when we were fighting to become a nation. The land of the free and the home of the brave. We now find ourselves engaged in a fierce ideological battle. As policies, antithetical to the forward progress towards one nation under God, are exploding day and night in our social and political America, we hold onto that hope declared that our flag still waves. That hope has proved resilient.

The flashes of bombs exploding in battles for national defense gave proof that the ideas the flag symbolizes were still grounded. We had a collective conscious ness of the hope in the promise of America. The ideological battles are more nuanced. They are a partisan blend of social, political and religious beliefs. The ideological syncretism is justified in their lived experiences within a compressed society where melanin too often determined worth. These battles are grounded in our inherited social strata. A premise woven into the Founding documents that became the under current that flowed through the infrastructure of the nascent democracy.

Two centuries later, what was a premise became policy. We the people carried the implicit hierarchy of political power organized around white male property owners. The property included land and sometimes human beings.

The bombings of churches, the fire-lit skies of domestic terrorism, ritual crosses burning and night lynchings, and the bloodied bodies of peaceful protesters that were the signature of the civil rights era didn’t desecrate the flag—it still waved. But these ideological conflicts gave proof that the liberty that the flag represented was frayed along the edges.

The policy became the ideological framework of an America 250 that normalizes disrespect, casts dehumanization as humor, and insults national figures without correctives from leader ship. It is imperative that we answer for ourselves this question: does the flag continue to symbolize the hope of America? These are battles of ideas—an ideological redefining of America. The flag still waves but the loyalty has shifted. Ideological patriotism is the undertow of sweeping policy changes that undercut our progress toward that one nation under God. Gerrymandering is a legislative assault on diverse representation. The dismantling of the Voting Right Act disempowers the voice of resistance. A neces sary voice that restrains governance from becoming authoritarian. Conspiracy narratives of stolen elections and voter fraud discredit the integrity of the polling system. Confidence in the process is diminished. Partisan politics paint opponents as unpatriotic, their policies as unchristian, and their purpose is to destroy America. Ideological battles but the flag still waves.

America is poised to celebrate 250 years of independence. It is a history rich with exceptionalism but also permeated with the horrors of an ideology that bastardized our hope. The pathway to the promise became a minefield of prejudice— a gauntlet through which we have emerged resilient in our quest for oneness under God and flag.

July 4th is a grand celebration. We will celebrate 250 years as a nation that is a beacon of hope for democracy. We scrubbed our history of the ugly realities of chattel slavery, and the systemic injustice born of that ideology. If we are to celebrate our exceptionalism, we must be honest about the history that defines us. We must acknowl edge the strong backs of the oppressed that built this nation. We must acknowledge the blood-stained landscape along the pathway to the promised hope. These truths were sidelined so that an untainted American exceptionalism may be presented. The flash of bombs bursting in the air—battles of national defense and the cultural conflicts—ideological battles for the soul of America—gives proof. The flag still waves.

What this generation and future generations must ask, does the flag that still waves symbolize the hope of the Declaration or the loyalty to the ideological grip that holds the nation. History will record the truth. You cannot silence history.