It’s just past midnight and Election Day has just dawned. As I look to my right from where I’m sitting writing this story, I can see across the hall into my bedroom where an American flag stands in the same corner I put it in four long years ago.
The last time my flag fluttered freely in the breeze was at a rally in Philadelphia to protest the decision by the Supreme Court that handed the 2000 election to George W. Bush. On that day I placed my American flag upside down on its pole and spent hours on the streets of Philly demonstrating my outrage. The flag has remained upside down ever since.
Many people had never seen an upside down flag before and asked me what it meant. I told them that it was a symbol of national distress and then explained to them that I felt our nation was in crisis and that’s why I chose to present our flag in that manner.
During the rally, while I paraded alone up and down the sidewalk just outside of the park, one woman in a car slowed down, rolled down her window and yelled, “Traitor!!!”
Her words stung me to my core and I admit that tears welled up in my eyes. I wasn’t sure if I was angry or hurt but all kinds of emotions came to the surface in the moments after her hateful message to me.
I wondered why the woman called me a “Traitor” when she knew absolutely nothing about me?
Just down the street from where I was standing stood Independence Hall, the very place where our nation was born. Down another street and also within sight was the Betsy Ross House where legend tells us Betsy sewed together the first American flag.
Having been born in Philadelphia , at the US Naval Hospital in South Philly, I was well aware of our nation’s history growing up, and had spent my entire lifetime studying everything I could about how our revolution had given birth to our nation and had given us our freedoms. I had also studied Constitutional Law in college and learned first hand how to apply these laws as a Police Officer in New Jersey
My paternal ancestors came to America in the 1630’s and two of them became the first colonial Governors of Rhode Island and New York . I am a descendant of a warrior clan from Scotland where my ancestors fought tyranny from their homeland in the Highlands for many centuries and then fought heroically in every major war in American history. Every directly related male in my family that I know of from the 1630’s up to and including my son have taken an oath to defend our nation. With this pedigree coursing through my veins I feel that I have the right to say what’s on my mind and also have the right to fly my American flag any damn way I want to without being called a “Traitor”.
During the past four years I’ve been called much worse things than “Traitor” though, by zealots who have either forgotten, or more likely never truly known, the founding principles our nation was built upon. These self proclaimed “Patriots” seem to think they own the rights to our flag and then have the audacity to look down their noses at those of us who dare speak out or try to demonstrate our rights which are guaranteed under the Constitution.
Having come of age during the 60’s, I witnessed the anger and rage that divided our nation during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. I didn’t think it could ever get worse than that but then we had to deal with Nixon and the entire Watergate scandal in the early 70’s. I couldn’t imagine anyone ever being hated more that Richard Nixon but then the Bush family emerged and made Nixon look like Little Miss Muffet.
In 1976, I was contacted by some officials from the incoming Carter administration and was asked to be part of a panel that was going to investigate abuses within the FBI and the CIA. I thought about it for awhile and was flattered to even be considered but turned down their request when I realized that I might meet my demise as an investigator at the bottom of the Hudson River sporting a new pair of cement shoes. Looking back now, I wish I had done it. It might have prevented Bush 41 from ever becoming President.
Bush 41, an effeminate little toad, was surrounded by scandal and controversy for years and was right in the middle of things during the original October Surprise, Iran Contra and Iraqgate. He emerged from all of this totally unscathed and much richer and then passed his torch to his evil spawn Bush 43. You might notice that I never refer to George W. Bush as President. In my mind he will never be my President because of the way he was presented the office by the Supreme Court. The man lost the popular vote by 500,000 votes in 2000 and there is no way that I can honestly justify his being our President when he lost the mandate of the people in the last election.
Watching Bush 43 operate over the past few years makes me wonder why he lost by only a half million votes in 2000. I knew back then that he had a reptilian soul and used to tell people to just look into his eyes and then tell me I’m wrong. What is even more shocking to me is how this election is considered to be so close after all of the outright buffoonery this man has perpetrated and all of the shame he has brought to our country while playing dress-up President in the White House.
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe when I see so many people worshipping at the feet of this self-proclaimed messiah who so clearly in my view is nothing more than a charlatan and a fraud. What are they seeing that I can’t see?
Have they somehow missed the fact that W is a coward who used his fathers influence to dodge the Vietnam War and then went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard and lost his flying status because he refused to take a physical during the time when he was allegedly doing cocaine and nearly drinking himself to death?
Have they somehow missed the fact that if Bush had to undergo the same national security clearances that members of his staff had to pass in order to work in the White House that he would most likely fail due to his criminal record and substance abuse history?
Have they somehow missed the fact that W failed in every business venture he ever touched including those personally funded by members of the Bin Laden family?
Have they somehow missed the fact that as Commander-In-Chief Bush allowed the most powerful military force in the history of the world along with our entire high-tech national defense system to be sneak attacked and defeated by 19 guys armed with box cutters who supposedly lived in caves?
Have they somehow missed the fact that the leader of these hijackers is still on the loose and still issuing threats after W proclaimed he wanted him “Dead or Alive” over three years ago?
Have they somehow missed the fact that nearly 3,000 innocent Americans were murdered on 9-11 and yet nobody has been held accountable for preventing the most heinous crime in American history from happening?
Have they somehow missed the fact that nearly 1,100 of our sons and daughters have been killed in Iraq in a war that was based totally on lies?
Have they somehow missed the fact that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the War on Terror even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11?
Have they somehow missed the fact that the United States is now hated by more people in the world than ever before because of W’s incompetence and insanity?
How many more innocent people will have to die and how much more hatred and shame will the United States have to endure before the other half of our nation takes off their blinders and not only drums Bush out of office but throws him behind bars?
I’m hoping and praying that the disaster of the last four years ends today. My flag was created to fly freely in the breeze and I would love nothing more than to put it right side up on its pole once again and display it the way it was meant to be displayed. I can only do that though if the American people finally come to their senses and give Bush the same pink slip that millions of us received during the past four years.
Bush deserves to be humiliated and “Old Glory” deserves to be unfurled.
By Allan P. Duncan OpEdNews.com Election Day, November 2, 2004
Allan Duncan is a 911 activist, and a former Social Worker and police officer, who lives in New Hope , PA. This article is copyright by Allan Duncan ADuncan282@aol.com originally published by opednews.com Permission is granted to forward this or to place it on a website as long as the article is included intact, including this statement. Read more of his articles at Allan Duncan Archive
-- http://www.opednews.com/duncan_110204_flag.htm
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