7/4/08: To those flag wavers, wearers, even eaters

The first year I lived in China, my Canadian co-worker announced that he wanted a T-shirt with the Chinese flag on it as a souvenir. He asked the rest of us, American and French, to let him know if we saw one. He asked this in September, but at the end of the school year, no one had found what he was looking for.

We asked Chinese colleagues why we couldn’t find any Chinese flag paraphernalia — no buttons, bags, accessories or clothing — for sale in the markets or malls. Most stared at us blankly in response.

One teacher looked confused, but answered. "We don’t do that," she said.

It may change when the Olympics, and Western demand for the usual souvenirs, come to Beijing, but the Chinese don’t sell their flag. And they certainly don’t wear it.

Americans do. With the Fourth of July comes an explosion of flag-related clothing, car magnets, buttons — lapel pins — and other items meant to show support for America. Small flags are passed out at parades and waved vigorously. Department stores set out little bouquets of flags at checkout counters as national-holiday impulse buys.

Doesn’t this strike anyone else as strange?

Of course, the point of the American flag, of America, is that it’s for everybody. It should be widely available, as ubiquitous as our civil rights; I can understand this stance.

What confuses me is that the people who wave these flags, often discarding them hours later, and who buy flag merchandise, are mysteriously often the same people who insist that "respect for the flag" is a fundamental American value.

But it’s not "respectful" to wear a picture of the flag. We’re not showing our respect when we put flag decals on our cars or spin flag-colored pinwheels.

We’re showing enthusiasm. We’re associating ourselves with the nation. We’re declaring ourselves "American."

We’re showing that we choose to participate in American society — that we are members, for better or worse.

And that’s fine.

In fact, that enthusiasm, the decision to participate, is worthy of our respect — more so than a flag, which represents a lot but is, ultimately, just a piece of cloth.

The flag is a symbol. We salute it, we pledge allegiance to it and at baseball games most of us take our hats off to it. But the flag is not our right to bear arms or to speak freely. The flag is not our right to vote.

The flag is not our right to buy and sell flag merchandise.

We who live in the 50 states are allowed to consider the image of the flag our own. Unless you live in the District of Columbia, you’re allowed to buy and sell flag souvenirs. You’re allowed to discuss the flag. You’re allowed to put it on your porch in a flag holder or to stick it to your car bumper. You’re even allowed to burn it in protest.

Democracy is the reason we’re allowed to put the stars and stripes on whatever we want — from Independence Day cakes to boxer shorts and handkerchiefs.

The Chinese would never think of eating their flag, even a frosting version of it. The Chinese flag is a symbol of the state, of government, and Chinese people generally leave it to the government to deal with their flag.

The American flag is a symbol of us, the people. As with most things in our government, it’s ours to interpret and appropriate.

Celebrate that however you wish — T-shirts and cupcakes included.