This week, I'm in North Carolina to help my sister-in-law get ready for her wedding. This is the second time I've been to North Carolina. Missouri doesn't butt up agains an ocean, but I find so many similarities here to where I grew up.
The abandoned building structures reclaimed by nature. Neighbors walking into your house without knocking. Single-wide mobile homes. Vehicles parked in the yard, vehicles stuck in a field for years, trucks trucks trucks. The sheriff following you for miles on your way back to the Airbnb. Church steeples. Roads that go on forever through the trees. Rainwater filling up the ditch of your yard. Everyone has a ditch. Piles of wood. Garages full of tools. Flags on flagpoles. Not the good kind.
My problem with "patriotic" flags besides the American flag is that they're not patriotic, but divisive. These flags require you to recognize your differences with your neighbor. These flags say, at the very least, "we're not really united". At worst, they say "I'm your enemy". And maybe that's helpful to recognize reality. But it also establishes who is the "other". And when you can "other" someone, anyone—cheapen their humanity so they are someone "less" than you—it's easy to turn off your own humanity if it means you win "America" like it's some fucking football game.
There are a lot of these flags where I'm at this week. So once again, I'm thinking about America.
