Take Back The Flag

Chapter 1

Who am I and what the heck do I know? Why am I even writing this book? To start, I’m a Catholic Christian who marched in support of the pro-life movement in D.C. as a young person. I’m a current writer and a former small business owner who became a teacher when I got my master’s degree in education in my thirties. I am also a 25-year Army Veteran and I firmly believe in the growth and strength of our great military and the importance of the security of our amazing country that I have proudly served for more than half of my life (at this point). I’m sure that just hearing all of this could provide you with an initial thought of my political leanings, however, you would likely be very wrong.

I was also a sociology major in college because people interest and intrigue me. I am filled with empathy. I volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children whose parents were in the Justice System for some reason or another and their child needed someone to speak up for them. I spent years in the Army as a trainer, leader, advocate, and mentor to Soldiers and civilians and I heard their stories and felt their pain, their struggle, and their loss. I am a huge advocate for common sense gun laws because safe gun laws have absolutely nothing to do with Second Amendment Rights, they have everything to do with keeping Americans safe. I’m a staunch supporter of rights for all people to be whoever God created them to be (gay, straight, lesbian, trans, irrespective of color, Nationality, or creed, etc.), as long as their hearts are pure and their love is kind.

I also believe that the United States of America is a great Nation founded and rooted in immigration. After all, unless you are Native American, our ancestors were once immigrants here as well, and they came to America, just like the immigrants of today, for the opportunities and freedoms that this amazing country promises at the footsteps of the Statue of Liberty.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
-Emma Lazarus 1883

Overall, I would say that I’m a healthy mix of a liberal with a dash of conservative thrown in there … a Demo-publican, if you will. I suppose if it makes it easier you could call me a Moderate. But before you tune me out, just wait and please hear me out, at least through this chapter and then decide if you would like to continue.

I’m writing this book because I am worried about our country and the direction that I see it going. I’m worried about the lies that I see being broadcasted throughout the country all for the benefit of those who wish to control others. I’m worried about the intolerances that are being displayed on a mass scale and finding their way into our schools and politics. I’m worried that people no longer understand what it means to take and keep to an oath, or the importance of honor and character. I’m worried about the lack of critical thinking that exists in our society, coupled with a hypocritical attitude that would allow a man like Donald Trump to emerge as the front runner of the Republican Party. These are not small concerns … they are very real and very dangerous. And if you aren’t following politics much or what is really happening behind the memes or political rhetoric then you may be missing some very critical developments that are growing in the United States that have very real consequences for maintaining the type of democracy that we have lived in for the past 235 plus years.

I’m worried that people are losing sight of what it means to be an American and the history of not just how we came to be, but how we have gotten to the place we are today. It is now more important than ever before to understand where we came from so we know where we need to go, for one can never go back … why would you? Unfortunately, there are too many people in our society who long for a time gone by … why? Because they fear moving forward … they fear change and progress. They are comfortable in the familiar and because the past has already happened and therefore can be predicted to have been lived through, they want to go back to that time. We who want progress understand that the past was not all that great … we came through a lot to get to where we are today … but we still have a lot of work to do and together we can get there. We can be better. We can be stronger. We can be more perfect.

I’m writing this book to inspire people to vote, to inspire people to care more about our type of democracy, to see its importance and its fragility, and to know that you, dear reader, have a voice, and it matters. It matters now, it matters next year, and it matters 200 years from now … your voice matters. I used to be you (if politics confuses, annoys, frustrates, or bores you), but then I slowly started to see how the world was changing from the time I was a kid to now, as an adult. And I started thinking over the state of our society … wondering about the noticeable shift in corporate behavior, questioning why it seemed that large companies had become increasingly self-serving and profit-driven with less and less interest in the harmful societal impacts made by their products. Why did I, like so many others, bear such a heavy tax burden while the wealthiest among us appeared to contribute disproportionately less? How did they manage to shield their wealth from taxation, and is this unfairness in any way justifiable? The ongoing discussions about voting rights confused me, as well. How could such a fundamental constitutional right be the subject of any kind of debate? The prevalence of firearms and the ease of access to weapons also caught my attention, prompting me to wonder who was looking out for the safety of Americans? And as I reflected on the concept of free speech, I grappled with its relationship to truthfulness in public communication. Does our Constitution truly safeguard the right to spread misinformation or out and out lies? The political landscape also raised questions in my mind. Why do some Republicans persistently label Democrats as Communists? I struggled to understand this characterization, wondering if it stemmed from a misunderstanding of political ideologies. This led me to a broader concern – could our education system be falling short in ways I hadn’t previously recognized?

In looking into those questions, the answers all rested with politics and very loud, provocative extremists getting elected meant crazy things were happening to our liberties and the interpretations of our laws. When you’re loud and angry and seem to be bucking the system, people pay attention and the more they pay attention, the more they hear stuff that might resonate with them … because let’s face it, we all have some biased thoughts and ideas … and if we see that those ideas are being amplified by someone who could possibly make a change that we feel would benefit our own personal ideologies, we may just join the bandwagon. We may even sell out our “neighbor” or compromise our own values. So, we started getting provocative extremist voted into government (i.e. Marjorie Taylor Green and Donald Trump, to name a few) and then weird things start to happen. For instance, the mass spreading of unfounded and ridiculous conspiracy theories. Ones that I won’t even give a dot of ink worth of mention to because they are just too crazy and harmful … and honestly it was hard to believe what was coming out of the mouths of TWO elected officials … they should have been committed for mental health issues for even saying half of that stuff out loud. The thing is, they actually got people (A LOT of people) to believe them and buy into the lies and craziness that they were peddling. I didn’t like it … not one bit! In fact, it became so bad that I couldn’t even recognize this new MAGA Republican Party anymore.

They seem to view the world in terms of the life that they lead and have no empathy for the struggles of others they view as beneath them (immigrants, perhaps?). They live in unrealistic far-fetched conspiracy fear instead of rational fear that calls for reasonable and logical action to prevent realistic threats to our country. They don’t want to live in a democracy despite giving themselves names that have to do with the Constitution or Freedom or Democracy. They long to live in an Autocracy where they are given the rights to own weapons of their choice and walk around with them on their person, but that people have to live by a very strict set of rules and laws, and behave in a very conservative manner. They want morality police.

This is not who we are as Americans. This is not how the United States of America was set up to operate. If these MAGA Republicans want something so completely different for this country, they are free to leave and set up a life in a country that embraces autocracy with oppression and morality police. We have NEVER been a country that has looked to countries like Russia or China with envy … until Trump. How do people not see this as a warning sign of things to come? We are so fortunate just by being born American to be given fundamental freedoms, protections, and opportunities that aren’t even conceivable in so many other countries. We must hold onto these freedoms and to our democratic republic because when you suppress the freedom of one, you have opened the doors to suppress the freedom of all.

Our forefathers brought about this new Nation because they wanted to see growth, progress, and live in a democracy that was representative of the people that were being governed. They knew we needed a governing body with a high degree of intelligence and the forethought that it took to create the Constitution; it was utterly remarkable. They expressly fought against the authority and oppression of a single ruler. We cannot simply throw it all away for this ONE GUY who clearly cannot see its value or its purpose and wants to take us back to a time when freedoms were not so readily acceptable if you weren’t a white male, when our environment was in greater peril due to the lack of regulations on manufacturing, as was our health, and when immigrants were mostly of white European descent.

WE CAN’T GO BACK! Whether you believe the days gone by were the “good old days” or not, there is simply no going back in time. As they say in physics you can’t unscramble an egg. There are always going to be things to look back fondly upon, but one can never actually go back. Progression is a sign of an advanced society and in order to ensure our civilization does not go extinct, we must advance. If we never believed in progress, we would have died off as a species long ago.

We can no longer take for granted the government that has served us for the last 235 plus years. Those who are rallying against our democracy by attempting to overthrow a free and fair election (scrutinized at every possible angle despite there being no direct evidence to support the false claims being spread) are the real threat. These people call themselves Patriots, Nationalists, Oath Keepers, but in reality they are obstructionists, extremists, and anti-patriotic. Our nation was founded and developed over time, based on freedom and equality for all, not just a subset of the population. We are all immigrants (except for Native Americans … hence the Native part). Our ancestors came to this land hoping for freedom from persecution and a chance to make their dreams come true.

Freedom for all … to be who we are. How can you insist on your freedoms and then stifle someone else’s, which is what the MAGA Republicans want to do. We are all as different as snowflakes, and although we do have similarities, no one is exactly the same. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to focus more on our similarities than our differences; imagine how society would look then? We simply need to understand that there are people out there who are somewhat different from us, extremely different from us, and anywhere in between. Just because someone is different does not make them bad or wrong. They are just different. It’s not what is on the outside that matters … we must be willing to look deeper. People will show you who they are by their actions and their intent. These are so much more telling of one’s character and the goodness in their heart than their skin color, gender, or class could EVER be.

The MAGA Republicans do not make up the majority of this country, but they are loud and they are determined, and right now they are trying to find any way possible to gain power and control in order to govern by old-fashion thought, harmful tactics and ideas, and ways to keep the middle and lower class majority “in line” with their values and controlling mindset. Democrats and Moderates cannot let this happen. We must Take Back the Flag. The flag that is not a symbol of hate, but one of acceptance; not of fear, but of freedom; not of regression, but of advancement and opportunity. The far-right extremists wear the flag as a suit of armor, as if they have some claim to it that denounces anyone else from seeing it as anything but what it truly is … a symbol of freedom, perseverance, hope, opportunity, and justice.

I make no claims to be a scholar or history buff of any kind. I am the daughter of a photojournalist who toured the world taking pictures of the evidence and aftermath of real events and the effects those events had on our country and our world. I learned a lot from my dad and hope that this book would make him proud because he valued real news, authentic journalism, truth seekers, and fact finders. He fought for Freedom of the Press because he understood the gravity and how important the transmission of the truth was to the American people. He believed in informed and educated opinion grounded in facts and critical thought. He was a history major and if he were still alive today, he would be heartbroken at how Americans have forgotten their history and forgone their duty to seek out the truth.

We simply can’t allow this to continue on … we can’t keep amplifying these extreme voices. We must bring back sanity, logic, critical thinking, and the search for truth into our daily news and interactions with one another. I believe in this country and the good of the people, to do right by the people, for the people. I hope and pray one day the Republicans can take back their party, but until then, we need to TAKE BACK THE FLAG from those that want to take away the freedoms that it stands for!