Re: When Can We Get Rid of Those POW/MIA Flags...?

Date: February 04, 2004

Something to get the blood boiling. From the Chicago Sun Times...

"We're obsessed with flags that have lost meaning

February 4, 2004

BY NEIL STEINBERG SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
nsteinberg@suntimes.com

Opening shot


When can we get rid of those black POW/MIA flags that have been flying under the American flag for the past 30 years? Or are we stuck with them forever? I'm all for honoring vets, but the black flag has always had negative overtones, having originated in Rambo paranoia centered around the belief that American prisoners were still in Vietnam years after the war ended and the government was for some reason concealing the fact. The flags, in addition to honoring sacrifice, also suggest, unfairly, something shameful about the country, or at least they did. Now vets say they are just a generic tribute to all the prisoners of war and missing in action. Perhaps. But there are better ways to honor U.S. service personnel. The flags will probably disappear one by one, as those who care passionately about them move on. A good thing, too.

Warning!

Speaking of flags. The leafy suburban paradise of Northbrook, as well as other suburbs, tries to inform its residents of the current state of terrorist peril in a rather quaint fashion. They take the official warning color -- be it yellow or orange -- and fly it in the form of a flag, a plain square of color, under the American flag, on their civic flag poles. I live right by the Northbrook Village Hall and have noticed the flags, in fire engine yellow and land-a-plane orange.

I must admit, I didn't feel warned as much as amused. A village warning flag is only a notch or two down on the quaintness scale from a town crier or a lamplighter.

I called the village president, Mark Damisch, to try to find out who thought up the flags. He was enthusiastic, more or less. "I think it's a wonderful idea, though I don't know how meaningful it is,'' he said. "I just noticed them for the first time about a week ago.'' Damisch didn't know who decided to fly them -- he suspects the Department of Homeland Security recommended the flags in one of their many directives. But he isn't sure.

And while he said he laughed about the flags, he also found a note of caution in them. "It did remind me, even if for five seconds, that we are at war. I didn't think that's a bad thing.''

We are at war, aren't we? American soldiers are dying almost every day. It's amazing how casually people let that fall from mind. Maybe we could design a flag for that. A Doncha Know There's a War On? flag.

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