Yesterday I received an email, which I posting with the knowledge of the author, who lives near the Quaker Meeting House we both attend. Our building is on Old Georgetown Road, very near the CIA.
The title line of the email was simply "Ponder this." Below I have offered unedited (except) for the name of the author, replaced by the xxxx) the entire email. I will then offer the substance of my reaction, which I sent to him.
I invite you to keep reading, and then, if you are so inclined, to share your reactions, to his email and to my response.
Ken,
I sent this yesterday to family and a few friends. What I get back was anecdotal confirmation that McLean wasn't unique. There might be something going on -- a kind of short-circuit from patriotism overload. Perhaps your friends at Daily Kos might be interested.
xxxx
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Here is one for your frontal lobes to work on.
There are 17 homes on the cul-de-sac where we live. People who live in them are a good cross-section of 'inside the Beltway' folks of McLean -- active and retired government managers, lawyers, professionals. Today is July Fourth. It struck me as I walked the dog this afternoon: not one house had a flag.
Curious, my wife and I hopped in the car to explore... and drove around for a full hour. Not a scientific survey, but still a conscientious -- and revealing -- one. Our neighborhood first: 18 streets, maybe 300 homes ... 32 flags.
Then over to the tonier part of McLean. Bigger houses with more space between, owned by people one would suspect might want to show gratitude for bigger opportunities and rewards in some visible, patriotic way. Seventeen flags.
Then past several blocks of parked cars belonging to families of fireworks-watchers hobbling off with their burdens of picnic coolers and lawn chairs. One car flag.
A year ago, such non-display would have been unheard of. And two years ago, unpatriotic. Especially in McLean, which for a couple of years after 9/11 seemed to bristle with house flags, car flags (BIG, in-your-face ones), bumper stickers (flags and slogans) and flag decals.
Today? Well... times, they appear to be a-changing.
For the record: there was a flag atop a pole outside Hickory Hill, home of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, and now for sale by Ethel.
Peace.
I wrote back that I thought that it might be in part because we have always had something of a libertarian streak in Virginia. I informed him what had happened recently on George Allen's official Senate website. he had put up a poll with a question designed to influence the outcome of the poll. It was asking people about the proposed flag amendment, even AFTER it was defeated by the Senate, and Allen's campaign manager had accused Jim Webb of being influence by John Kerry, with the implication Webb lacked sufficient patriotism, and on behalf of Webb Steve Jarding had fired back at Allen. By the time Allen took the poll down the vote was over 75% AGAINST the amendment.
That was the substance of what I wrote. I have posited to a few other people that pushing the flag amendment now may be a mistake like the bill on Terri Schiavo. I wonder if - given the current context of the failure of the occupation in Iraq, tne continued deaths of Americans there and in Afghanistan, the additional news about the government spying on Americans, and so on, if the American people are beginning to see through the amendment for the attempted political manipulation we here know it to be.
What was your anecdotal observation? What are your reactions. I hope you will share them with us.