I’m so happy to read this! Glad to hear that people are feeling more love for America; glad to hear that you now feel safer expressing your appreciation for your country.
You bet I fly my American flag on Memorial Day. I also have a personal tradition at a local All Veteran’s Memorial Park. Every Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and some other occasions, I go there early and pick up the trash in the parking lot, playground, and memorial grounds. Most of the time, I’m the only one there, but I know that later in the day there will be more people coming, and they will now be able to have a soothing experience, without a lot of depressing trash littering the grounds.
This year, even though it was 8:00 AM, there were already several people at the memorial, paying their somber respects. It was so heartening, and made me feel connected to fellow patriotic Americans. What an improvement over the experience of the past several years!
As a Brit (with an American wife), America has a *always* seemed a much more patriotic country than the UK. I'm not surprised to see American flags flying in the US; I would be astounded to see a house or shop flying the Union Flag. I'd be less surprised to see the Flag of St George, but I would assume the person flying it was lower class (and white).
There was a hoo-ha years ago when Emily Thornberry MP, then a member of the Shadow Cabinet, made fun of a house flying not one, but two Flags of St George, on Twitter. Thornberry is a Labour MP, so this was seen, correctly, as a sign that Labour no longer cares about the white working class. The only time you really see national flags flying is when there's been an international sporting success, which is very rare. (This is more about England; I assume that Scotland and Wales are different due to the separatist nationalism, but I have no experience.)
That said, I agree that Trump's election has created "permission structures" for many things and an explosion of patriotism doesn't surprise me. It's too early to say yet whether these things will be net good or net bad.
Incidentally, as a Doctor Who fan, I'm jealous of the Star Trek Museum (although, I would be up for a Star Trek Museum trip too). (Although a Doctor Who Museum would probably have a lot of twenty-first century Doctor Who stuff and I've mentally checked out of that.)
“The magazine — the bullet thingy, if you’re not gun-literate … .” 😂😂😂😂😂
Patriotism is not the “last refuge of a scoundrel” (no apologies to Dr. Johnson, ever), but a natural expression of affection for the land, its people and its institutions.
The part about Bigfoot and if he has changing attire reminds me of a city nearby where the owners of a house that strapped a metal gorilla to pole and dress it seasonally. Santa for Christmas, etc.
Monday he had the flags for all the military branches in front of him.
I don’t fly a flag typically but I do wear one, either on a hat or my right sleeve.
I do like the style of the 1776 flag. That would be the one I’d likely put up.
I didn't see much decorating here, although I do follow a pretty prescribed course of travel. One exception: a couple of houses on a street I drive through daily always decorates for the season. For the past week, the yards of both houses sported multiple US flags.
On the taking of pictures thing, I think it depends on why the pictures are being taken. I've been doing photography, not professionally but mainly for enjoyment since 1967. If something catches my eye, and I have my camera, I am going to take pictures, always. That makes the event for me.
On the other hand, my younger daughter is a dancer and while she was in school, she performed in the Nutcracker every year from the time she was six until she graduated from high school. And I photographed every dress rehearsal and most performances. During all those years, I only saw the Nutcracker through a lens.
After she graduated and went on to college (as a dance major) a few times she would be home when the local production was set, and we would watch it together. And it was a completely different experience for me. Not better, not worse; just different.
Patriotism is indeed coming back in style. Trump's election and the recognition that his voters are in the majority allowed people to feel comfortable showing their patriotism for their community to see. This is refreshing to me after eight years of Trump trashing by dems and rhinos. I've been called everything but a child of God just for saying that I support Trump.
I understand that Trump is not our god. He is, however, our weapon of choice to get control of the federal government. It takes one helluva lot of chutzpah to oppose many of his policies. Dems campaigned 20 years ago on cutting the budget and closing the border to illegal immigration. Now it is sacrilege to consider the same.
I am happy to see people show their patriotism and not be afraid to do so. Perhaps the Overton window is shifting to the right.
People down the road from me have a Bigfoot statue. They put a sock hat and scarf on him in winter. He currently has a baseball cap and fishing pole. No pants though... Rural central Indiana has lots of American flags. The "In this house we believe" signs have been replaced by "We support our Immigrant neighbors". I can't say I've seen both that sign and the American flag in the same yard. I'll have to pay particular attention.
Another outstanding essay. A year ago I think a lot of people would have been reluctant to fly the flag, lest they be branded as MAGA and inherit all the vitriol heaped on Trump. I doubt that we will ever have a president that is approved by 100% of the people. Trump has plenty of flaws, but hating the country is not one of them.
YES — your last sentence may be the key I was trying to identify, honestly. I don’t think some past presidents loved the country or were proud of it in the way he is, even if they were the kind of men that, if I had to choose between them and Trump, I would rather young men be influenced by in many other ways. Definitely not in that one. Thank you.
Holly, you are my spirit animal! Your astute observations regarding the seemingly mundane remind me of what New Yorker used to be. The posters of veterans and American Flags are also ubiquitous further down the Hudson. (Catskills region). A lot more patriotism is visible in the Mid-Hudson Valley, which is a delight to see.
As regards the anarcho-pride nonsense, I hate to stereotype, and I say this in half-jest, but maybe it’s all the French influence in Vermont that is the issue, lol!
It’s a strange thing the way this shift has come. My whole adult life it’s been the cool and popular thing to hate America. I’ve lived in the south my whole life so there has always been pushback against that where I live. But the pushback came from older people and definitely not the ones that seemed cool. Happy maybe but not cool.
But it seems like that’s less and less the case. And that’s strange. It makes sense to me. The next generation often rebels against the previous. But it’s still strange because it’s not the world I’ve lived in my whole life. I think it’s a good thing, being on the right myself. And I’m sure it won’t last as these things never do. But I feel like we’ve been going the wrong direction for a very long time and we’ve started going something closer to the right (haha) direction. And I hope when the right goes wrong and it’s time to lean more left it’s less traumatic than it has been this time. Time will tell.
I am so looking forward to your review of the next book. Today’s post was great, too. I am a patriotic soul and we fly our flags (American and Texas) when our wind is not blowing too bad and put up bunting for the 4th. I want a Bigfoot with patriotic boxers, though. I think I’ll go shopping!
So good to hear that showing the flag openly and proudly has come back. As an 82 year old child of the 60's I well remember how conventional expressions of patriotism often struck my generation as hollow. But I was shocked when I went to dinner with my high school classmate Colonel James Bigelow when he came home from his second tour of three in Vietnam and he was wearing civvies. I asked where his uniform was and he said it caused too much aggravation on the street. I opposed the Vietnam war rationally based on actual research I did in Butler Library at Columbia and Jim and I disagreed about that rationally until he passed on. Not for one moment did I fail to recognise that Jim and every other soldier in Vietnam had knowingly subjected themselves to the risk of death on behalf of our country and the rest of us. But many, particularly academics of my generation, veered away from a positive view of America and the ideals of the American revolution toward the ideals of the French Revolution - particularly in the form of academic or ivory tower Marxism. Hence, to grossly simplify, the 1619 project, and the active attempt to discredit American ideals like equality of opportunity and replace them with European socialist ideals like equality of outcome. Sorry, but I will not abandon those three 14 year old young men who fought and died in the Revolution. They are buried in the woods near where I grew up in New Hampshire and their graves are still decorated every Memorial day. And I will not be called a racist by critical racists because I have walked both the Confederate and Union lines at Gettysburg until I came to terms with all the dead who fell there - one and all - as my fellow Americans and my brothers. Nor do I reject that American ideal that common humanity trumps racial identity (or sexual identity for that matter) suggest reading Frederick Douglass' 1894 speech “The Blessings of Liberty and Education: An Address Delivered in Manassas, Virginia.” Try to keep your heart from overflowing as you read it. And I say this as someone who lives in a far more socialist country - Australia - and also recognises that in many ways that Australia is a far more competently run place than the US. So, I too, am center right for many reasons.
In Kirk’s bedroom, if the tour guide doesn’t show you the hidden phaser, make sure you ask! (They try to make every tour a little different so they don’t show it every time, but that’s worth nudging to get to see.)
I just typed and deleted my memories of going through 9/11 in NYC and NJ, and the sudden patriotic displays. I decided if I wasn’t performing or displaying on 9/10 then I wasn’t going to on 9/12. All I could do for the first responders was show up to give blood (it turned out that wasn’t needed, there were not many survivors) and say thank you to any cops I saw guarding midtown that fall.
I’m now in CA, bluest of blue, and live near a former Navy base with a WWll aircraft carrier museum where they have a regular Memorial Day ceremony. I’ve gone for the last few years and it’s pained me to see such a small turnout. This year seemed better attended and more spirited. My friend and I both put up flag banners on our decks and I decided to keep mine up until the wind and rain season. It’s not a performance, I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’m not ashamed of being an American and I haven’t committed any ‘original sin’ to atone for.
Thank you for writing this. Bit rambly of a rant below.
It was said above, but Trump for his many flaws -is- a patriot - and a proud one. One who cares about his country as much as a narcissist can… I think recent presidents and politicians haven’t cared about the people of this country, but rather the power wielded by those in office. Many using it to enrich themselves and their sycophants at the cost of the rest of us. We still see this when they just won’t vote for the right things…
The American empire is in decline. Our military weak and unable to attract our youth. Trump is turning us inward and focusing on what’s best for us for the first time in far too long. Voters came out to MAGA. It is more permissive to be patriotic. People are just tired of the woke BS we have been subjected to for decades. Republicans, having captured all three branches for the first time in a long time, are squandering the chance to set us on a responsible course of fiscal policy and not cutting identified fraud and waste.
I loved reading this! I have seen, and sensed, the shift of expressing the love of America more openly as well. We live on a fairly busy county highway, and often, when putting out the flags on our house (oh yes.. multiple!), we'll get a honk from someone driving by. (Especially when my husband parks the truck back-end out at the end of the driveway, installs the 12 foot pole he constructed for the trailer hitch and raises the big 5x7!) We wave - we connect. And even though I have no idea who they are... I know exactly who they are.
I’m so happy to read this! Glad to hear that people are feeling more love for America; glad to hear that you now feel safer expressing your appreciation for your country.
You bet I fly my American flag on Memorial Day. I also have a personal tradition at a local All Veteran’s Memorial Park. Every Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and some other occasions, I go there early and pick up the trash in the parking lot, playground, and memorial grounds. Most of the time, I’m the only one there, but I know that later in the day there will be more people coming, and they will now be able to have a soothing experience, without a lot of depressing trash littering the grounds.
This year, even though it was 8:00 AM, there were already several people at the memorial, paying their somber respects. It was so heartening, and made me feel connected to fellow patriotic Americans. What an improvement over the experience of the past several years!
I'm so glad to hear this. I'm also glad that it's not just me, or here.
As a Brit (with an American wife), America has a *always* seemed a much more patriotic country than the UK. I'm not surprised to see American flags flying in the US; I would be astounded to see a house or shop flying the Union Flag. I'd be less surprised to see the Flag of St George, but I would assume the person flying it was lower class (and white).
There was a hoo-ha years ago when Emily Thornberry MP, then a member of the Shadow Cabinet, made fun of a house flying not one, but two Flags of St George, on Twitter. Thornberry is a Labour MP, so this was seen, correctly, as a sign that Labour no longer cares about the white working class. The only time you really see national flags flying is when there's been an international sporting success, which is very rare. (This is more about England; I assume that Scotland and Wales are different due to the separatist nationalism, but I have no experience.)
That said, I agree that Trump's election has created "permission structures" for many things and an explosion of patriotism doesn't surprise me. It's too early to say yet whether these things will be net good or net bad.
Incidentally, as a Doctor Who fan, I'm jealous of the Star Trek Museum (although, I would be up for a Star Trek Museum trip too). (Although a Doctor Who Museum would probably have a lot of twenty-first century Doctor Who stuff and I've mentally checked out of that.)
“The magazine — the bullet thingy, if you’re not gun-literate … .” 😂😂😂😂😂
Patriotism is not the “last refuge of a scoundrel” (no apologies to Dr. Johnson, ever), but a natural expression of affection for the land, its people and its institutions.
Let Freedom Ring and God Bless America.
The part about Bigfoot and if he has changing attire reminds me of a city nearby where the owners of a house that strapped a metal gorilla to pole and dress it seasonally. Santa for Christmas, etc.
Monday he had the flags for all the military branches in front of him.
I don’t fly a flag typically but I do wear one, either on a hat or my right sleeve.
I do like the style of the 1776 flag. That would be the one I’d likely put up.
I didn't see much decorating here, although I do follow a pretty prescribed course of travel. One exception: a couple of houses on a street I drive through daily always decorates for the season. For the past week, the yards of both houses sported multiple US flags.
On the taking of pictures thing, I think it depends on why the pictures are being taken. I've been doing photography, not professionally but mainly for enjoyment since 1967. If something catches my eye, and I have my camera, I am going to take pictures, always. That makes the event for me.
On the other hand, my younger daughter is a dancer and while she was in school, she performed in the Nutcracker every year from the time she was six until she graduated from high school. And I photographed every dress rehearsal and most performances. During all those years, I only saw the Nutcracker through a lens.
After she graduated and went on to college (as a dance major) a few times she would be home when the local production was set, and we would watch it together. And it was a completely different experience for me. Not better, not worse; just different.
Thank you for writing this!
Patriotism is indeed coming back in style. Trump's election and the recognition that his voters are in the majority allowed people to feel comfortable showing their patriotism for their community to see. This is refreshing to me after eight years of Trump trashing by dems and rhinos. I've been called everything but a child of God just for saying that I support Trump.
I understand that Trump is not our god. He is, however, our weapon of choice to get control of the federal government. It takes one helluva lot of chutzpah to oppose many of his policies. Dems campaigned 20 years ago on cutting the budget and closing the border to illegal immigration. Now it is sacrilege to consider the same.
I am happy to see people show their patriotism and not be afraid to do so. Perhaps the Overton window is shifting to the right.
Very much so! The Overton window shift is really noticeable, and I’m enjoying it.
People down the road from me have a Bigfoot statue. They put a sock hat and scarf on him in winter. He currently has a baseball cap and fishing pole. No pants though... Rural central Indiana has lots of American flags. The "In this house we believe" signs have been replaced by "We support our Immigrant neighbors". I can't say I've seen both that sign and the American flag in the same yard. I'll have to pay particular attention.
Another outstanding essay. A year ago I think a lot of people would have been reluctant to fly the flag, lest they be branded as MAGA and inherit all the vitriol heaped on Trump. I doubt that we will ever have a president that is approved by 100% of the people. Trump has plenty of flaws, but hating the country is not one of them.
YES — your last sentence may be the key I was trying to identify, honestly. I don’t think some past presidents loved the country or were proud of it in the way he is, even if they were the kind of men that, if I had to choose between them and Trump, I would rather young men be influenced by in many other ways. Definitely not in that one. Thank you.
It made me so happy to read this. Thank you.☺️🙌
Thank you for reading!!
Holly, you are my spirit animal! Your astute observations regarding the seemingly mundane remind me of what New Yorker used to be. The posters of veterans and American Flags are also ubiquitous further down the Hudson. (Catskills region). A lot more patriotism is visible in the Mid-Hudson Valley, which is a delight to see.
As regards the anarcho-pride nonsense, I hate to stereotype, and I say this in half-jest, but maybe it’s all the French influence in Vermont that is the issue, lol!
I suspect it’s all the influence of teachers, ha ha. But I know what you mean.
It’s a strange thing the way this shift has come. My whole adult life it’s been the cool and popular thing to hate America. I’ve lived in the south my whole life so there has always been pushback against that where I live. But the pushback came from older people and definitely not the ones that seemed cool. Happy maybe but not cool.
But it seems like that’s less and less the case. And that’s strange. It makes sense to me. The next generation often rebels against the previous. But it’s still strange because it’s not the world I’ve lived in my whole life. I think it’s a good thing, being on the right myself. And I’m sure it won’t last as these things never do. But I feel like we’ve been going the wrong direction for a very long time and we’ve started going something closer to the right (haha) direction. And I hope when the right goes wrong and it’s time to lean more left it’s less traumatic than it has been this time. Time will tell.
I am so looking forward to your review of the next book. Today’s post was great, too. I am a patriotic soul and we fly our flags (American and Texas) when our wind is not blowing too bad and put up bunting for the 4th. I want a Bigfoot with patriotic boxers, though. I think I’ll go shopping!
So good to hear that showing the flag openly and proudly has come back. As an 82 year old child of the 60's I well remember how conventional expressions of patriotism often struck my generation as hollow. But I was shocked when I went to dinner with my high school classmate Colonel James Bigelow when he came home from his second tour of three in Vietnam and he was wearing civvies. I asked where his uniform was and he said it caused too much aggravation on the street. I opposed the Vietnam war rationally based on actual research I did in Butler Library at Columbia and Jim and I disagreed about that rationally until he passed on. Not for one moment did I fail to recognise that Jim and every other soldier in Vietnam had knowingly subjected themselves to the risk of death on behalf of our country and the rest of us. But many, particularly academics of my generation, veered away from a positive view of America and the ideals of the American revolution toward the ideals of the French Revolution - particularly in the form of academic or ivory tower Marxism. Hence, to grossly simplify, the 1619 project, and the active attempt to discredit American ideals like equality of opportunity and replace them with European socialist ideals like equality of outcome. Sorry, but I will not abandon those three 14 year old young men who fought and died in the Revolution. They are buried in the woods near where I grew up in New Hampshire and their graves are still decorated every Memorial day. And I will not be called a racist by critical racists because I have walked both the Confederate and Union lines at Gettysburg until I came to terms with all the dead who fell there - one and all - as my fellow Americans and my brothers. Nor do I reject that American ideal that common humanity trumps racial identity (or sexual identity for that matter) suggest reading Frederick Douglass' 1894 speech “The Blessings of Liberty and Education: An Address Delivered in Manassas, Virginia.” Try to keep your heart from overflowing as you read it. And I say this as someone who lives in a far more socialist country - Australia - and also recognises that in many ways that Australia is a far more competently run place than the US. So, I too, am center right for many reasons.
Going to take a road trip to the Star Trek museum! Thanks Holly!
In Kirk’s bedroom, if the tour guide doesn’t show you the hidden phaser, make sure you ask! (They try to make every tour a little different so they don’t show it every time, but that’s worth nudging to get to see.)
I just typed and deleted my memories of going through 9/11 in NYC and NJ, and the sudden patriotic displays. I decided if I wasn’t performing or displaying on 9/10 then I wasn’t going to on 9/12. All I could do for the first responders was show up to give blood (it turned out that wasn’t needed, there were not many survivors) and say thank you to any cops I saw guarding midtown that fall.
I’m now in CA, bluest of blue, and live near a former Navy base with a WWll aircraft carrier museum where they have a regular Memorial Day ceremony. I’ve gone for the last few years and it’s pained me to see such a small turnout. This year seemed better attended and more spirited. My friend and I both put up flag banners on our decks and I decided to keep mine up until the wind and rain season. It’s not a performance, I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’m not ashamed of being an American and I haven’t committed any ‘original sin’ to atone for.
Thank you for writing this. Bit rambly of a rant below.
It was said above, but Trump for his many flaws -is- a patriot - and a proud one. One who cares about his country as much as a narcissist can… I think recent presidents and politicians haven’t cared about the people of this country, but rather the power wielded by those in office. Many using it to enrich themselves and their sycophants at the cost of the rest of us. We still see this when they just won’t vote for the right things…
The American empire is in decline. Our military weak and unable to attract our youth. Trump is turning us inward and focusing on what’s best for us for the first time in far too long. Voters came out to MAGA. It is more permissive to be patriotic. People are just tired of the woke BS we have been subjected to for decades. Republicans, having captured all three branches for the first time in a long time, are squandering the chance to set us on a responsible course of fiscal policy and not cutting identified fraud and waste.
The decline continues sadly.
I loved reading this! I have seen, and sensed, the shift of expressing the love of America more openly as well. We live on a fairly busy county highway, and often, when putting out the flags on our house (oh yes.. multiple!), we'll get a honk from someone driving by. (Especially when my husband parks the truck back-end out at the end of the driveway, installs the 12 foot pole he constructed for the trailer hitch and raises the big 5x7!) We wave - we connect. And even though I have no idea who they are... I know exactly who they are.