Musings

Flag Abortion?

 

 

In Tulsa, the president proclaimed that there should be a law against burning the US flag.  In the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of protest against police violence, in the midst of an economic meltdown, he has attempted to elevate a (literally) fringe phenomenon into the spotlight. Hardly anyone burns the American flag, and when it does happen, the act is almost universally condemned.  Making it illegal to burn the flag is itself illegal, as the courts have determined repeatedly. 

Trump's declaration was pure theater.  He was wrapping his divisive rhetoric and his disastrous policies in the flag.   

But most Americans understand that the right to burn our flag is an important reason for us to wave it.  It stands for freedom of speech.  It stands for the civil rights of people of all political and religious persuasions.  So, friends, let's out-flag Donald Trump and his flaggy followers. Let's display the flag in front of our houses and at demonstrations and public events.  Not to worship it, but to lift it up as the symbol of freedom and democracy for us all.  Again, if we don't use it, we'll lose it to people who stand for the very opposite of these principles.  When we claim the flag, it ceases to function as the talisman of right-wing extremists.  Let's follow Nancy Pelosi's example.  Whenever she holds a public event, there is a row of flags behind her.  She knows exactly what she is doing! 

Years ago, during a previous Republican pretense of trying to make flag-burning illegal, I wrote this spoof:

 

Flag Abortion: The Debate

 

Does a flag become a flag after the first trimester – when 17 stars are sewn onto it?  Or is a flag a flag at conception, when someone merely considers making one?  Does a flag have a right to wave before it is completely sewn together?

At the Crisis Flag Center, which masquerades as a flag-planning clinic, unsuspecting flag-makers are offered complete pre-flagbirth care.  But all they get is a 45-minute video of the horrors of flag burning.  “See?” the staff says, looking clinical in white smocks as they point at a flag development chart.  “Perfectly formed stars and stripes.”

Meanwhile, the pro-choice lobby gathers momentum.  “Why,” they argue, “should we bring flags into the world unless we planned them?  What is wrong with burning a fetal flag?  A flag is not a flag until it can wave on its own.”

Moderates propose compromises.  “Flag burning only in cases of flagmaker incapacitation or gross star or stripe deformity,” they say.

The stench of scorched nylon overwhelms such voices.  And the Right-to-Flag-Lifers press on, demanding an end to flag burning in all cases.

When they get their way, there will be a constitutional amendment denying the right to think about burning the American flag.

This Is Our Flag

(My friend and USC faculty colleague, Leah Buturain, calls this "musing" a "Reclamation Proclamation"!)

 

Very few American flags have waved at the recent protests in defense of black lives.  I hope that this changes, and fast!  The peaceful protesters for justice are the real patriots in our country today.  It's our flag!  If we don't use it, we'll lose it.  How can we allow people who don't represent its true values claim it exclusively as their symbol?  When progressive people wave the flag, we transform it away from being a sign of backward-looking nativism.  People vote their identities more than they vote their own economic interests. Turn the symbol of their identity into one that represents inclusion and racial justice, and we begin to shift politics in a hopeful direction. 

Today, Confederate flags and statues are coming down.  So American flags should go up!   Finally, 155 years later, all Americans are winning the Civil War: black, white, northern, southern, and the rest of us.  If ever there was a time to wave our flag high and with pride, this is it!  

Most countries have some kind of focal point on their flags.  But the American flag does not. It has an off-center beauty made up of multiple stars and stripes, none emphasized more than the others.  Our flag models our nation.  America is not centered in ethnicity.  Not united by language.  Not bound together by one religion.  Our founders united us by a universal human principle, rooted in Nature itself:  the principle of the equality of humankind, expressed through democracy.  No one of us can claim to lord it over the rest.  All of us are humbled before the rule of law and our Constitution that enshrines it.  The universal spiritual principle of humility, expressed in religious and secular traditions, is woven seamlessly into the fabric of our nation and of our flag.  From this humility, love flows and grows. 

To that end, I wrote This Is Our Flag.  The tune, Finlandia, was written by Sibelius, a Finnish composer.  His words to the hymn were overtly and even obnoxiously nationalistic: it was a time when Finland was threatened with absorption by the Russian Empire.  In contrast, an American, Lloyd Stone, wrote lyrics in 1934 that expressed national pride but with deep respect for other nations:  This Is My Song.  I wrote two versions of This Is Our Flag, one is American and the other is "international" in flavor: 

This Is Our Flag

(Tune:  Finlandia - Jean Sibelius)

Words:  Jim Burklo
 

This is our flag, inviting every nation

To human freedom and democracy

Red, white, and blue: we sing out our devotion

In harmony from our diversity

Our creeds and tongues and points of view are many

We stand as one defending liberty

 

This is our flag: its stars and stripes are many

As we have gathered from so many lands

Into this tapestry we're sewn together

Raising our flag, and all for which it stands

Our Constitution binds us all together

Under our flag, in humble unity

 

This is our flag: it waves for all our people

Who gave their lives extending liberty

It waves for votes in free and fair elections

It welcomes migrants yearning to be free

It stands for truth, the rule of law, and justice

Long may it wave, held high by you and me!

 

(Ana Gobledale of Worship Words inspired me to offer an "international" version of this song:)
 

This is our flag, inviting every nation

To human freedom and democracy

We lift it high, and sing out our devotion

In harmony from our diversity

Our creeds and tongues and points of view are many

We stand as one defending liberty

This is our flag: a banner stitched from patches

That we have gathered from so many lands

Into this tapestry we're sewn together

Raising our flag, and all for which it stands

Our loyalty binds us all together

Under our flag, in humble unity

 

This is our flag: it waves for all our people

Who gave their lives extending liberty

It waves for votes in free and fair elections

It welcomes migrants yearning to be free

It stands for truth, the rule of law, and justice

Long may it wave, held high by you and me!

 

PS:  Ruth Carleton, a peace activist and parishioner from my days as Associate Pastor of First Congregational Church, UCC, in Palo Alto CA, wrote this alternative "pledge of allegiance to the flag.  She taught it to her students when she was teaching in an elementary school:

Mine is the home of the land of the free

This is the place I most want to be

Home of the kind, the brave and the true

Whose flag is the colors--red, white and blue

Sighs Too Deep

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."  (St Paul, Romans 8: 26)

I needed to sigh. 

So up to the mountains I went this past Saturday, and hiked among the huge slabs of sandstone at 4,000 feet on the desert side of the San Gabriel Mountains.  I paused to stand under a scrubby piñon pine tree and listen to the voice of its stubby needles in the cool clear wind. 

Last week, while I was teaching a mindfulness meditation class for USC students and staff on Zoom, we got into a discussion after I led the group through a "body scan" meditation, guiding them to attend to any emotions that might be associated with sensations in their bodies.  Several said that their breath was the focal point.  One woman said she found herself sighing in the meditation - and sighing a lot in general.  Others reported the same experience.  Then a graduate student in the class spoke up:  "Isn't this what's up for everybody now?  The coronavirus takes away your breath.  George Floyd, as he was dying under the policeman's knee, cried 'I can't breathe!'  And we are all sighing because of the mix of emotions we are feeling!" 

Her astute observation reminded me that when the virus started spreading, and the lockdown began, I found myself sighing a lot.  What was happening to the entire human race, all around the planet, was truly breathtaking.  In recent weeks I have noticed that the sighing stopped.  I habituated. 

I also habituated to police violence against black people. When the news about George Floyd's murder came out, I was saddened and disgusted, but my breath was not taken away.  Just another incident in a long series of examples of the lingering scourge of racism in America. 

Until I read a Facebook post written by a fellow member of Mt Hollywood Church in Los Angeles.  Hilary's anguish was palpable.  As a black woman with a son, she was in despair that what happened to George Floyd could happen to her own child.  Her despair broke through my spiritually-insulated, white-privileged soul.  With hers, finally, my sighs were too deep for words. 

I'm grateful that Hilary took my breath away.  I'm grateful to belong to a church where the Spirit can blow down the walls that inhibit our vulnerability, as she did for me. 

If we're sighing, we're not alone.  We're sighing with the Holy Spirit of divine Love who comisserates with us.  The biblical Greek word for "spirit" is "pneuma", which also means "breath".  If we're sighing, we're feeling emotion.  And emotion is energy.  Mindfulness practice and contemplative prayer are not about breathing deeply and being relaxed.  They are about paying attention to our experiences and thoughts and emotions and letting them be, even if they're hard.   And if we know our emotions, we'll be in touch with their energy, and then we can channel that energy into creative, positive work to relieve the suffering and injustice around us. 

Contemplative practice is the very opposite of withdrawal from the world and its struggles.  It is what we do in order to feel again when we've become hard-hearted, and to get clarity about how best to direct that power for the good of others.  When I am hard-hearted, when I am complacent, I don't know how to pray as I ought.  I need help.  Hilary helped.  And so did that piñon tree in the mountains.

Each kind of pine has its own voice in the wind, tuned to the length of its needles.  I stood and listened to the piñon, until divine Love made me sigh once more.

JIM BURKLO

Blog: MUSINGS

Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, University of Southern California

How? can we end systemic racism....

 

(Our family is having some intense Zoom and email conversations this week, motivating each other to get educated and activated in support of racial justice.  In one email thread, our 13 year old granddaughter, Rumi, asked this potent question:  "How?"  She wants to know what she can do to make a difference.  Here's what I wrote back to her.)

"How?" you ask, Rumi -- yes, that's the right question!  To make change, we have to exercise power - and there are different kinds of it.

Money is a big one, for better and for worse:  people with a lot of money have more potential political and cultural influence than normal folks.  And some rich people and their corporations have used their power to prevent black people, and others, from getting what they need to rise above the 400-year-old legacy of racism in America.  These rich folks have used their influence to cut taxes and cut government spending on health care, housing, and social services that could lift up people from poverty.  They are guilty of systematic racism:  they have supported an economic and political system that makes life hard for a lot of black people.  They don't need to say bad things against black people:  they just take actions that will hold them back.  But rich people with the right intentions can do a lot of good toward ending systematic racism, by donating their money wisely.

 

Institutional power is the power held by people who control companies and governments.  CEO's, politicians, government officials, police officials, etc.  They control the institutions that have the ability to help or hurt people.  Companies and governments can do a lot to make policies that counteract systematic racism.  For instance, politicians can make sure that police are trained to be sensitive to minorities and trained in non-violent crisis management techniques.

 

People power is another form of power.  See the image above!  When regular people without a lot of money get organized and focused, they can force businesses and governments to change their policies.  Little fish, organized together, can make the big fish change direction!  Organized, peaceful demonstrations in the streets are examples of "people power".  Also, regular people joining advocacy groups like ACLU and NAACP can have big influence, because they represent millions of voters.

 

Cultural power is a kind of people power.  And I think this is where you and your friends can make a bigger difference than you might imagine.  Music, art, TikToks, videos, etc, can have a huge influence in changing the direction of our country toward racial justice.  A handful of young people in Serbia, back in 2000, brought down that country's brutal dictator by using cultural power that inspired a larger people power movement.  In Latvia, a "singing revolution" starting in 1986, was crucial in ending the rule of the Communist system there .  The upcoming election in November is a big deal for racial justice.  Biden is not perfect, of course, but he is light-years ahead of Trump in fighting systemic racism.  Culture power can help Biden and other Democrats get elected. 

As a 13 year old who is fluent in social media, you have a lot of potential culture power.  And you can have fun using that power!

 

JIM BURKLO

Blog: MUSINGS

Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, University of Southern California