Reply #7: The flag is NOT conservative! [View All]

[Longhorn]

I fly an American and Lone Star flag every day. The flag belongs to all of us, no matter how often the Republicans, the military complex, the religious right, and other groups try to claim it for their own.

What does it mean to be "pro-military?" The military is made up of sons (like mine) and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, who choose to join for a variety of reasons, most of those reasons honorable and self-sacrificing. It's time we quit condemning "the military" for what some leaders have chosen to do with it.

I view the American flag as a symbol of individual rights and freedoms as delineated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Has it been soiled by the actions of some? Yes, it has, but don't blame the victim!

Kerry has every right to claim the flag as a symbol in his campaign -- more right, in fact, than most. He was brave to fight when he certainly could have dodged or deferred and he was brave to speak out against the war at a time when he was -- and by some, still is -- called a traitor.