You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.
America in Distress.
Today I interviewed a man who proudly displayed his American flag upside down on his flag pole.
“This country’s in distress,” he told me.
I stare at his flag and it’s visually wrong. It gave me the same feeling I get when I see a deer cut in two on the side of a roadway.
I am nauseated as I watch the buzzards quickly return to the road kill as my vehicle passes by.
This is the hollow, sad burning I feel in my stomach as I stare at his upside down American flag.
There are rules to handling and displaying the American flag.
It must be treated with respect and according to the Annin Flagmakers guide: the blue Union field must always be displayed up. Displaying it upside down is a signal of distress.
There’s that word again; Distress.
Why does the American Flag need to be in Distress.
The Stars and Stripes has guided this country for hundreds of years. It has lead us into the darkness, into battle, into a brave new world.
When you see an American flag, what do you see?
Freedom. Patriotism. Democracy.
It’s the perfect flag representing ideals so powerful, it only takes a glimpse to feel the surge of patriotism run up your spine.
One symbol, one glimpse, few things outside of a Victoria Secrets underwear model generate so much emotion so fast.
So I look at this patriotic anomaly flying over his house.
It’s distressed, so I am distressed.
To me, the American Flag is beautiful. Red, White, and blue. It’s the super model of world flags.
Compared to Antwerp, a checkered pattern of squares vomited onto fabric, the American Flag is the cure for cancer.
But as I look at this upside down symbol, it looks like it wants to cry. It reminds me of a puppy that needs to be saved.
I want to climb the pole and set it right.
So to see an American flag upside down, waving in the wind, against a brilliant blue autumn sky, well, for lack of a better term it is “distressing.”
I meet the 52-year-old patriot in the front of his realty company, aptly called Liberty.
He is a passionate well spoken man. The father of 2 boys tells me that he loves this country and he is posting his flag upside down to send a message.
“What’s that message?” I ask.
“The political system is broken,” he says.
It’s hard to argue that point.
I have long argued in this very place that the system is broken. Democrats, Republicans, Independents; none of them seem to represent the American ideal anymore.
It’s more about stagnation and greed and beurocracy.
I listen to the man as he tells me that Americans needs to take this country back by sending a message to our legislators.
“We owe 17 trillion in debt to the Chinese,” he says. “We’re free, but we can’t be free when you owe 17 trillion dollars to a communist nation.”
I ask him if he walks out of his house, looks at the flag, and feels unpatriotic.
“No. Not at all,” he says.
“I feel proud.”
He tells me he is taking a stand and exercising his freedom of speech and making people stop and take notice.
I too like the fact that he is exercising his freedom of speech. That’s one of the greatest things about the country that flies the stars and stripes.
You may not like the message, but in America it is not illegal to hang an American flag upside down.
But to me, it feels wrong. It feels like the flag stands for so much good and to hang it any way other than right side up is somehow disrespectful.
To see it flapping upside down on the pole is an effective visual. Symbolically it looks sad, it looks weak, it looks like its colors have run scared and freedom is gagging up a white star.
I go to his you tube channel. His video questions everything. Health Care. Tax Reform. The N.S.A. It shows black people, white people, hispanic people, all holding a flag upside down.
The video features him riding a motorcycle without a helmet along a country road.
I understand his message. I understand his right to deliver it. But I also question, if only for a moment, his motivation to push the video so it goes viral.
He tells me that he first came up with the idea for the song after talking to a friend who is a vet. The vet lost his military benefits. The vet was flying his flag upside down.
The songwriter said “your flag is upside down.”
The Vet said he was doing it because he was in distress.
And so a movement is born.
The man says he won’t take down his flag till the national debt owed to the Chinese is erased.
This flag could be in distress for a while.
But America is a melting pot of ideas and flavors all coming together at different speeds and temperatures.
An upside down flag?
While unconventional, it is better than violent demonstrations that attract attention for all the wrong reasons.
The Annin flagmakers guide also says to respect the flag.
Some would argue this is not respectful.
And that is why this country is so great, because something as simple as an upside down flag means so much to so many.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
With Liberty and justice for all.
Life’s Crazy.