I’ve been thinking about Flag Day and the American flag. I’ve lived in more than one small town and Flag Day is popular in those smaller communities. Got a utility pole? Stick a flag on it. Those communities shone with the bright waving flags.

Flags are symbols. A symbol represents something else. Sometimes symbols represent something concrete. The eight-sided red sign with four white letters on it is a symbol. We learn early on what it represents: “Put the brakes on. Bring your vehicle to a halt. Quit forward motion.”

Sometimes what it represents is an abstraction. Like the Stars and Stripes. In the Pledge of Allegiance, that patriotic statement many of us learned in elementary school, tells us it’s a symbol pointing to an abstraction: “… and to the Republic for which it [the flag] stands…”

The flag, a symbol, stands in for an abstraction, the Republic. “Republic” is a description of the sort of nation the USA is. We vote for folks to represent us, but the power resides with us — “We the people” who occupy the first words of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

That symbol, the flag, makes a huge statement. An important statement. It symbolizes much more than three colors, some woven material and thread. It stands in for our Republic. For our Constitution.

Which has me wondering how the flag got so easily misunderstood and misused.

I’m not talking about the times in our recent history when the flag was ripped or burned or walked upon. And I don’t mean the times other countries have used our flag in ugly ways, to shout their anger toward us.

I’m talking about the many in our own country who proudly fly our flag or use it as a backdrop, but speak and act in ways that demonstrate they have no interest in our Republic or our Constitution. Some politicians come to mind. Some of my neighbors do, too.

The recent racist actions here in Redmond, the raccoon slaughtered at the mayor’s door, the hate speech directed at a city council member, have no place in our Republic and demonstrate ignorance of our Constitution.

I have no idea who did it. I’m embarrassed for them. I wonder about how well he or she or they did in school. I would not be surprised if he, she or they had a flag on his, her or their car(s) or truck(s), or flew a flag at home.

For some in our nation the flag has come to be a symbol, not of our Republic, as the Pledge says, but of racism. Others fly the flag, but for them the symbol represents bigotry, of which racism is but one form. Others see it as a dividing symbol, e.g, “I have a flag pin on my lapel; I’m a true American. You don’t have one? You’re not really an American.”

I know people with flags on their home who speak and work to make the U.S. into a totalitarian state. Oh, they would deny that if challenged, but their speech demonstrates their approval of authoritarian leaders, demagogues who are not hiding but show up in the news with far too frequent regularity. Not a few committed to totalitarian/authoritarian leaders fly Old Glory on a short pole attached to their home.

I try to be a thinking person. Occasionally I succeed. I don’t like it when people make claims with no evidence. We’re in a time in America when thinking seems to be in short supply and claims are made, outrageous and often silly claims, and those claims are embraced by many without question.

Social media has only made things worse. I shouldn’t be surprised by the disconnect between the symbol, our flag, and what it symbolizes, our Republic and, by extension, our nation’s Constitution.

Remember the old bumper sticker which read “America: Love it or Leave it.”? What does it mean to love America? Put a flag on your porch pillar? Is that all? Not for me.

To love America means to work to embrace and uphold its Constitution. It means to ask questions of those in charge and not settle for answers which have no supporting evidence. It means to understand race and religion and sex and background are irrelevant in any discussion about being “American.” It means recognizing we have never been a white nation and we cannot return to something we’ve never been.

It means recognizing that raccoons killed on the mayor’s doorstep only shows how stupid, yes, stupid, the actors are who did it.

Waving a flag and boasting of one’s patriotism are meaningless. Symbols which signify nothing.

Working to keep our Republic, working against authoritarian leaders and those who want to be authoritarian leaders; holding to the values of our Constitution, our Bill of Rights and our Declaration of Independence, that’s patriotism.

The Declaration says:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That’s what Flag Day means. If we flew no flag on Flag Day it would still mean that, and more. Patriots defend the three documents I just mentioned. Patriots don’t spill raccoon blood or make racist comments or hate any who differs from them.

Our flag says we’re all in this together, whether there’s a flag in our yard or not. Some who fly that flag have no clue what the flag means. We each suffer because of their ignorance.