Bill Moyers Cynical Display Of The Flag

28 Feb, 2003 by John Hawkins

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Bill Moyers Cynical Display Of The Flag: I cannot tell you how offended I was after reading the following repulsive, taxpayer funded rant from Bill Moyers. Really — it sickens me. It started out — well OK — as Moyers said…

“I wore my flag tonight. First time. Until now I haven’t thought it necessary to display a little metallic icon of patriotism for everyone to see. It was enough to vote, pay my taxes, perform my civic duties, speak my mind, and do my best to raise our kids to be good Americans.

Sometimes I would offer a small prayer of gratitude that I had been born in a country whose institutions sustained me, whose armed forces protected me, and whose ideals inspired me; I offered my heart’s affections in return. It no more occurred to me to flaunt the flag on my chest than it did to pin my mother’s picture on my lapel to prove her son’s love. Mother knew where I stood; so does my country. I even tuck a valentine in my tax returns on April 15.”

I could point out that you can vote, pay your taxes, speak your mind, etc, and still not be patriotic — but that’s really beside the point. Furthermore, you don’t need a flag to prove that you’re patriotic and that’s not why most people wear them. See Moyers may not get this, but many us LIKE patriotic songs, symbols, etc and that’s why we wear/display them. It’s not to prove anything — in fact ,if you really do have a deep and abiding love for our country, you don’t need a symbol to show it, it’ll just show through as people get to know you. But, I’m getting ahead of myself — back to Moyers gibbering…

“So what’s this doing here? Well, I put it on to take it back. The flag’s been hijacked and turned into a logo – the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On those Sunday morning talk shows, official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it is the good housekeeping seal of approval.”

I always find it odd when I hear this sort of whining about people wearing flag pins. The people who wear those things choose to do so and absolutely nothing is stopping Bill Moyer or anyone else from wearing a flag pin if they want to do so. However, Bill Moyers and his ilk just don’t like the idea of wearing them. But, simply not wearing them isn’t enough, they have to complain about the people who do. Here’s more from Moyers…

“When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao’s little red book on every official’s desk, omnipresent and unread.”

See, now we’re getting to the real root of this. Moyers thinks of “Mao’s little red book” when he sees a flag, which is a ludicrous comparison by the way, but that’s what Moyers sees. So the real issue here is that Moyers doesn’t like the flag and doesn’t want to wear it. But, rather than admit that embarrassing truth, he’d rather attack the people who do want to wear the flag.

Moyers then goes a trite little rant about, “people whose ardor for war grows disproportionately to their distance from the fighting.” Hey, WW1 is over Moyers. Although combat is of course, extremely dangerous, Conservatives over the protests of the left, have helped build our military up to the point where we no have to toss our young men into a sausage grinder to fight a war. In fact, we lost more civilians on 9/11 than our military lost in every conflict since the Vietnam war COMBINED. Now on to the offensive line in the whole piece…

“I put it on (the flag pin) to remind myself that not every patriot thinks we should do to the people of Baghdad what Bin Laden did to us.”

So we’re going to do, “to the people of Baghdad what Bin Laden did to us.” So, I guess that makes President Bush the equivalent of Osama Bin Laden right? Also, doesn’t that make our armed forces morally the same as Al Qaeda? Furthermore, since a majority of the American people support this, isn’t Moyers saying we’re just as bad as the people who support terrorism?

You know, I find that to be a disgraceful and sickening example of moral equivalence and I honestly believe that only a depraved person with a warped view of America & the world could come to that conclusion. Furthermore, if you believe that thr majority of Americans are no better than Al Qaeda, then not only will I say that is grossly incorrect, but it’s also a position that only someone who has a deep dislike for this country and what it stands for could believe. Last but not least, if Moyers was trying to get across that wearing a flag lapel pin doesn’t make you patriotic, well, he proved his point — although probably not in way he thought he did.