Irony for Veteran's Day

So, the other day we were watching the news, and it was all about this guy that had a US flag stolen from his yard. He had been flying it 24-7 in support of his brother in Iraq. He was going to give the worn, weatherbeaten flag to his brother after he returned, as a symbol "of something that showed how long you were over there." But one of his neighbors, not knowing the symbolic nature of his gesture, took his flag in secret, and left a new one with a note that said "Treat this one with more respect."

This did get to me, because this guy had made the flag a touching personal symbol, a representation of a concept that was important to him, and his intentions were undermined by someone who thought that he was disrespecting something that was a touching personal symbol, a representation of a concept important to them.

I can not find a link to this story, but apparantly theft of flags is a big deal on slow news days.

Fortunately, his brother will probably be in Iraq long enough for the new flag to get nice and tattered as well.

Freedom Isn't Free

The other thing I wanted to talk about is the phrase "Freedom Isn't Free."

I first became aware of this statement right after 9-11 when a printmaking classmate made a big print of a person in a turban with "FREEDOM ISN'T FREE" under it. (He did this without kitsch value, he would have made a Crying Eagle if he had known how to transfer the image to a silkscreen.)

Anyhow, at the time, I thought it was silly and would go away, but like a lot of sayings that make no sense, it seems to have a certain staying power.

Does this strike anyone as particularly Orwellian? Defining something with a condition that is directly its opposite? Seems like passing off irony as truth to me. I advise adherents of this saying to examine a dictionary Re: the terms "Freedom" and "Free", and alter their pithy statements accordingly. "The cost of preserving a puppet banana republic democracy in a state where an attempt to create a puppet banana republic dictatorship has failed, is 2000 American lives and counting," would work, but it would be hard to put on a bumper sticker. Perhaps, "SUV's Aren't Free." Or even "Hamburgers Aren't Ham."

Hey baby, wanna help me sue all humans?

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