Is It Time to Take Down the American Flag?

By Jason Peirce

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has finally joined the call for the Confederate flag to come down from statehouse grounds following deranged racist Dylann Roof’s massacre of nine black members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston last week. The flag is widely seen as a symbol of terror and oppression, especially to black Americans. The question is, why stop there? Why not pull the American flag as well, which is also a symbol of terror and oppression the globe over in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and so on, and so forth?

Absurd? Well, we might as well be consistent in the goal of trying not to offend anyone. What could we replace the American flag with, or for that matter, the Pledge of Allegiance with? How about a flag with the Nonaggression Principle (NAP) emblazoned across it? Or even a flag depicting the Silver Rule of Justice: “Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you”? Or maybe even the Golden Rule flag, which goes beyond the NAP as it’s the law of love, but hey, it makes us all feel better about ourselves when we recite it, even while we’re betraying it every day: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”?

Now, I’m not in favor of forcing anyone to do anything. But if we’re going to engage in such business, better to start our children off pledging allegiance daily to the NAP or Golden Rule and have it flying high in schools and capitols across the nation. If we’re going to propagandize and indoctrinate ourselves and our children, an NAP or law of love flag is far preferable than the Confederate or American flags. Look where these flags have gotten us: at war all over the world and at war with ourselves. So yes, how about: “I pledge allegiance to the NAP (or Golden Rule), in the United States of America; and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under the NAP (or Love), with Liberty and Justice for all.” We could have the NAP or Golden Rule flags flying high and pledges blaring through the loudspeakers at football stadiums nationwide on Sundays, right before the military jet flyovers. Now that’d be something to cheer about as tears stream down your face.

Here’s one more absurd but very real point about this whole sad and tragic episode. It turns out that Earl Holt, the leader of Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist group cited by Roof in his hateful, incoherent “manifesto,” gave tens-of-thousands in campaign contributions to top Republican presidential candidates such as Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Now, I’m certainly not a Republican, nor do I support Cruz or Rand or any other of the Republican candidates. I just wish one of them had the courage to point out another cruel irony at play here. Holt’s racism is dumb enough. But so is his understanding of political economy. If he really wanted to hurt black people, of course he’d sign off those political contribution checks to Barack Obama himself, whose welfare/warfare state policies will continue to do far more damage to the black community than Holt will ever be able to comprehend.