Picture of the Day - 2
posted by mikevotes at
8:15 AM
About This Blog
This is not the America I was brought up to believe in. This blog seeks to highlight abuse of power, deception, corruption, and just plain bad ideas in government and corporations. Updated several times a day.
Previous Rantings
- You've got to be kidding me.
- Using Jesus to attack gays
- Flash Drives a breach of security in Afghanistan
- Picture of the Day
- Disingenuous headlines
- Picture of the Day - 3
- Sy Hersh on CNN
- A little taste of a megachurch
- Picture of the Day - 2
- Anyone but Jaafari
4 Comments:
Cool flag.
I don't know about this kid, when my dad died I would have traded the tri-folded flag for his life back in a nanosecond. But I was just a selfish 8-year-old, so what do I know.
(ps. Full disclosure: my dad was honored as a vet, but didn't die in active service...)
By
-epm, at 11:01 AM
I'm always kind of fascinated by the symbology of the handing of the flag to the family. I hope I don't step on toes here, but everytime I see one of these, I get the same feeling you expressed. It's a very odd symbolic transaction.
In place of your dead son, father, husband, we offer you this symbol of what he died for. At his funeral, all his love and humor and complexities are reduced to what we perceive his death to mean. In this transaction we wish to affirm that his death had purpose within the value structure we hold. And here is a symbol of that value structure so that you too might see the value of his death.
Not expressed very well. Sorry.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 2:19 PM
No, actually, Mike, I think you put it quite well.
I have one of these on the cabinet sitting right next to me. My dad passed three years ago. Served in the Navy, Korean Conflict. Did it so he wouldn't get drafted and freeze to death like some of his friends did. Never made it past the Great Lakes Naval Air Station, thank goodness. Hated every minute he was in.
I have to tell you, with all the other tragedy and craziness that surrounded his death, and the hole his passing has left in my life, this flag in the nice glass box means very, very little.
By
QuakerDave, at 9:55 PM
I have met a guy to whom that flag was hugely significant. His father died in Vietnam when he was a year or two and that's all he had. And he hung onto it.
I'm trying to be careful not to run it down, because it does mean something to some people. I think I would feel it meaningless if it had happened when I was older, but as a kid, I don't know.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 10:31 PM
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