New Found Glory
Recently I stopped in Twin Oaks hardware on South Congress to buy a filter for our air conditioner. The hardware store, straight out of Rockwell’s America, is the antithesis of Home Depot. In fact, it’s almost too perfect–community-oriented flyers line the walls, a few younger employees are chatting with the regulars near the front of the store, and the cash register is manned by a rugged but friendly older gentleman. The shelves are stacked no higher than your chin and as soon as you walk in the shop, you detect a sense of “human scale.”
The place seems engineered to evoke feelings of community, hard work, honesty, and self-determination.
A young man rushed to greet me and I was delighted at the idea of someone actually assisting me in my search for a filter. He found the item, hurried back and then asked, “Is there anything else you need?” I was in a typical “support the neighborhood” kinda mood and looked around for something that might be useful. Hammer? No, got one. Thompson’s Water Seal? Nah. Maybe we could use a new smoke detector. Oh wait, it went off the other day while Sarah was cooking–it is working just fine. Ohh, I know what we need!
“Sir, do you carry American flags?”
I was wearing skate shoes and a t-shirt with a skateboard company’s logo on it. The employee wore a Carhart jacket and Wrangler jeans. He reminded me of some of the freshman that I went to school with in Montana, who had spent years working on ranches or farms. It was safe to say we come from different walks of life. He smiled and reported that the hardware store had been sold out of flags since the 11th. For a fleeting moment we exchanged respectful glances: here we are, I thought, two really different people silently acknowledging our solidarity and love of country!
“You might try Wal-Mart.”
I felt a shallow sense of satisfaction walking out. Wow… I tried to buy a flag. That’s cool. Was I also feeling a tinge of embarassment? I mean, this is South Austin for crying out loud! What would the neighbors think of an American flag proudly fixed to the front of our duplex?
I’ve never owned or displayed an American flag. Maybe I would like to think that true patriotism is not only demonstrated by obvious symbols and gestures–the buttons, pins, stickers, and fast food marquees with “Go America” declarations. But that’s not it. I was ashamed of the reason: it has just never been cool to fly Old Glory. That is what older Republicans who drive Buicks do, I probably thought. King Kaufman explains in Salon that he is “wrestling” with the flag. He writes:
For me, statements like “America right or wrong” or “America: Love it or leave it,” a chestnut from my childhood, are the antithesis of what this country is all about. And those are the sentiments that the flag has come, over many years, to represent for me.
I’ve never heard a friend, or anyone, that I can think of, express open hostility with the flag. But there is something most Gen-Xers know, even if their peers or pop culture icons have not told them: to be multi-culti, tolerant, hip, and cosmopolitan, never sport a flag on your car, house, or clothing. Lately I’ve enjoyed seeing the flag displayed not just on the sides of corporate office buildings and in the backs of oversized pickups, but in places that are not exactly so overtly patriotic. The UT campus, for example. On the corner of my street
and Congress is Guerro’s, perhaps the capital of South Austin bohemia. They have a flag out front that just looks fantastic. I hope they don’t take it down.
Some pundits, usually conservative, have pointed out disturbing incidents such as
the city of Berkeley admonishing its firefighters for having flags on their engines. But the real story is the unexpected demonstration of patriotism by students, liberals, and urbanites more accustomed to rallying around caffe lattes and Palm Pilots, than American flags.
As for me, I’m still waiting for flags to come in at Twin Oaks. I’m just not ready to take the step of buying one from Wal-Mart.
October 5th, 2001
