My Surge of Patriotism

The moment it was determined for certain who was responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on our country’s eastern edges, a switch was flipped in my soul.  A surge of an emotion I had never truly experienced before that moment possessed my being.   

My inner city-street-fighter woke up and shouted “Oh no they di-ent!”  

In all my 56 years (at the time) I had never even thought about owning a flag.  I saluted the flag, sang to the flag, sang about the flag, raised the flag, carried the flag in parades…but never did I feel the need to have a flag to call mine. Yet, on September 13, 2011, I was on the internet searching for a vendor who hadn’t completely sold out of their inventory.  Ebay prices for American flags were rising to ludicrous levels, the demand was so urgent.

Every time I heard Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” my vision blurred with pride and emotion. When it got to the line “I’m proud to be an American, ‘cuz at least I know I’m free” I would sing it out, loudly.

I even gave George W. Bush an attaboy for his handling of the immediate aftermath.  I liked his cowboy-style bravado as he stood atop a pile of steaming rubble shouting through a bullhorn to the heroes at Ground Zero.   I didn’t care which party he came from or that he was usually a doofus.  On that day, he was OUR doofus and we needed him.  My burning desire to strike back at the a-holes who dared to kill all those people on our turf far outpaced my usual disdain for the gunslinger in the White House.

I bought every article of clothing with a flag motif I could find in the stores:  socks, bandanas, jackets, and blouses.  I even wore a flag pin on my clothing!

For the first time in my recent adult memory, it felt like all Americans were on the same page.  Ideology didn’t matter.  Color didn’t matter.  Social status didn’t matter.  All that mattered was that we had been attacked and we don’t play that.

Sometimes I look back and feel so sad we couldn’t sustain that dynamic.  The other day I picked up my bandanna with the flag motif as I dressed for my exercise class.  I looked at it for a few seconds and put it back in the drawer.   I’m not feeling it anymore.