[sailaway21]

Obama's removal of the flag pin is a conscious attempt to appeal to those who are in charge of nominating the Democratic presidential nominee. For the most, over the last three presidential contests, that group has been the reliable Loony Left. The canidates selected have reflected not mainstream Democratic voters but the Loony Left's preferences.

It was not that long ago in American history where every family had a member within it who'd worn the uniform. If your father hadn't, your uncle had. If neither of them had served, their father had. First hand knowledge of Bastogne, Guadalcanal, and the Chosin Reservoir was a real part of every family. There could be no denial of the sacrifices made by both men at arms and their families back home. Everybody knew someone or knew a family of someone who didn't come home.

Those men were young doctor's fresh out of the University of Michigan medical school. They were red-armed roughnecks from the Texas oil fields. They were aspiring cinematographers from Los Angeles. They were sheep and cattle ranchers from the high plains of Wyoming. They were ironworkers from the skies over Manhattan. They were black field hands from Georgia. They were Japanese and Chinese immigrant children from the Chinatown's and Little Asia's of America's coasts. They were students and professors alike from the halls of the Ivy League. They were everyone we knew in a vast and sprawling America.

They served in different branches of the armed forces, then simply known as "the service", and some saw combat while other's manned far off post's in the Aleution's and Greenland. They were united by one single common denominator; duty and love of country. And one single symbol spoke for their own personal sacrifice and the sacrifices of their comrades who did not come home. The flag, always the flag. Nothing so symbolized their duty, honor, and pride so much as that photo, and later monument, taken atop Mt. Surabachi. The marines and sailors virtually faceless under the billowing, unsoiled folds of the Amercan flag being raised at the summit of victory.

So when you went to the parade and the colors came by, you watched your father and your grandfather fall silent, remove their cap, and cover their heart. You did the same because, while you didn't really know why, you knew that they did and you knew that this was something very important. You might have learned more of the significance of the flag as the draped caisson passed with the mortal remains of a president and the little boy John-John whom all of America knew, stood at attention and saluted. Later you saw that flag removed, precisely folded by the Old Guard and presented to the boy's mother. The flag, it was always the flag, and you learned that while you might never be called to serve, that flag meant more than you'd ever know to those who had and those who'd lost. When you walked into a stranger's house and there on the mantle sat that unique triangular box with the glass revealing a field of blue and a few stars, that it was all a mother or wife had left of a son or husband who never came home. There was usually a photo somewhere's about of an impossibly young man in a new and fresh uniform.

Nobody had to say why you stood in the movie theater and fell silent when they played the national anthem before the film. In case there was any doubt, there was the flag projected upon the screen. You might be antsy and restless as the young are so often but you knew that this was important to do if only because it was important to everyone who was important to you.

Do not speak to me of freedom of speech. I cannot hear you over the sound of guns at Tarawa and Belleau Wood. Do not speak to me of choice, I cannot see the choice the torpedo gave. Do not tell me of your disappointment in America, I can only see those dreams cut short so you could be so disappointed in America. There's the flag, always the flag, it's all that's left for the great them. Them that died, them that suffered, in good war and bad war, them. That's all that's left, of them.

If you're not comfortable with the flag that's ok. Wear or show it not, if that be your need. But please stand silent as it passes so those of us who know the deeds it honors may do our best to honor them. Some see only a flag. We see men. Row after row, division after division, of men stretching over the horizon no end in sight. And on their shoulders we see America, unsoiled and fresh with promise. They carry past America towards the future of America and they follow the flag, always the flag.

I'll leave it to others to figure out how to support the troops while opposing their mission. But if they think the flag is just a symbol well then I guess they're right, but it's not the symbol of what's wrong with America, it's the symbol of those who tried to make it right.