Sometimes I don't understand myself

Today, on my way into the post office, I saw an American flag lying on the sidewalk. As it was attached to a wooden pole about my height, I figured it must have been flying from the telephone pole behind me and gotten blown down by today's heavy winds.

Normally, I don't give a damn about the stars and stripes one way or the other, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave it lying on that dirty sidewalk. So I rolled the flag around its pole and brought it into the post office with me, thinking perhaps it belonged to them. But it didn't.

I thought about abandoning it in the post office but figured that before I could get out the door, some do-gooder would call after me, "Sir, you forgot your flag!" So I threw it in the back seat of my car, where it remains. I figure, the next time I'm downtown, I'll take it to the Town Hall and give it to someone who works there. After all, that flag has gotta be town property.

What I don't understand is why I bothered with that American flag in the first place. Ten years ago, I probably would've just sneered at the damned thing and left it lying on the sidewalk. What made me give a shit about that piece of cloth to a point where I couldn't simply ignore it? Please god, don't let there be a freeper in me that's trying to come out!

Aw, hell. Maybe I'm just mellowing out as I approach middle age. I don't know.... :shrug:

You picked it up for every person who loved this country
and took care of it with blood, sacrifice and dignity. I
know what you mean. I am filled with conflict myself but
you did a good thing.

Before the country was highjacked by the bush criminals??? I would have done exactly the same thing as you. Remember, a flag like that flew over JFK's inaugural, too.

til it's gone. I never really considered myself patriotic either, but the way Bush* and company are ruining America it makes you step back and take another look. It's the liberal inside of you wanting to protect the good ole US of A. :-)

Too bad there weren't any freepers to see a liberal picking up the flag we are so viciously accused of hating, which we don't, necessarily.

Maybe it bothered you, as it would me, becuase it being on the ground is so symbiolic of what the repukes are doing to it, that by picking up the flag, there was a bit of hope that perhaps the country itself could be picked back up.

This would be a wonderful anecdote for our democrat nominees to pick up and go with.

to you then you will cherish it. It is not the "Freeper" flag and they can't hijack it from me. I can't stand the ppl in power right now but I love this country.
The last time the Olympic games were on I got all teary eyed because when surveying the teams of most other countries the members have the same ethnicity but the American team had all ethnicities there. This makes me proud to be an American. We have embraced our diversity, we are a happy, respectful people and our country will restore these principles to the international community.
No our flag is not just for the white republicans and I refuse to surrender it to them.

I think it means you have not given up.

my dad was a career army officer, and I recall as a small kid how the flag was handled and respected . . . we'd be driving along on the base at 5:00 when they took the flag down, and every car would stop right where it was, and the serviceman or woman inside would exit the car, stand at attention and salute while the flag was being lowered (to whatever that bugle call is that they play) . . . things like that just stick with me, and I still have a great respect for the flag, though often not what it stands for . . .

Don't beat yourself up for respecting the greatest country on Earth.

And to make it even better, let's throw those right-wing racketeers out of our White House next November! :bounce:

Thanks, everyone, for the great replies. You made me think, and I consider that one of the nicest compliments you can pay a person! :yourock:

and you still believe in the power of the people

but there is something left inside me that will not abide the Flag touching the ground.

What you did, Night Train, was simple respect. That's as far as you need to bother yourself about your motives. You showed respect, and it will be shown to you.

You did right.