>
>Symbols are pieces of cloth and nice doodles. Their content is always
>contestable. And we should contest the meaning of such potent symbols as
>the flag.
>
Yeah, and I am more patriotic than most on this list, I would guess, but symbols come with burdens od meaning. "The weight of all the dead generation bears like a nightmare on the minds of the living." For example. it is now impossible to reappropriate the hammer and sickle, and even the red flag is pretty problematic. Now, the US flag is not, in this country, an object or hatred and revulsion, to say the least, nor contempt and ridicule (the problems with the previous two symbols I mentioned). But it carries in these contexts a powerful charge of chauvinism, USA #1, My Country Right or Wrong, America Love It Or Leave It, Fuck You Commie Pinko Peacenik. The CPUSA tried this under the Pop Front ("Communism is 20th Centuty Americanism"), and see where it got them.
So, I would not make "marching with a sea of America flags" a primary strategy; people would think it was a pro-war rally. I think appealing to the best in the American tradition, as such, is a good idea: the Constitution (sorry, Doug--but I agree with you about the Senate!), the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, etc. Did my talk get posted? I put it on, by I didn't see it.
Incidentally, I think Altermaniac attacks on "the hate-America left" are worse than a distraction; we've lost if we have to defend ourselves against such accusations and loudly proclaim that we love our country. I always say that if I didn't care about my country I wouldn't be doing this stuff. And I think to myself, but don't say out loud, what Jefferson said about slavery ("I tremble for my countryw hen I reflect that God is just.").
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