Is flag-waving stupid and immature?

I'm an occasional flag-wearer and flag-wearer.

On Canada Day. Once a year. Though I'll admit, my Canada Day lawn thingie is still in the garden from last year Confused

I'm very glad that the hamburgers came to Canada, and did not move any further south. Canada is my home, and I'm proud to be Canadian.

I wear (braid them into my hair) and wave flags at the Canada Day parade, wear my Team Canada Hockey jersey during the Olympics, and re-affirm my statement of citizenship at a ceremony each year.

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I live in a neighbourhood full of immigrants. People who arrived after the Second World War. People who arrived 2 years ago, 5 years ago ... people who came here from Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Japan, Jamaica, England ...

It's one of the reasons I chose my neighbourhood. There are a lot of Canajun flags out in the week coming up to Canada Day - and a lot of backgrounds represented at the parade and at the party which follows.

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I pity people who don't have the opportunity to be Canadian, but I don't think I'm better than they are. I'm just luckier :wink: , thanks to the hamburgers.

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Well, prepare for oceans of flags here today. It is Memorial Day. We will be remembering, so bear with us.

I think part of the turning away from waving the flag and the strong feeling of patriatism that even I had as a child, is due to the changes that have occured over the last 30 years. We have taken many steps towards one world that have resulted in many of us viewing this as a planet of people, rather than a planet with different countries and separate people.

What Bill refers to, IMO, is that the liberals / progressives (whatever) have opened their eyes to humanity at large and feel an allegence to the planet / people / nature, rather than a single continent. In that vein, I think the liberals are much more savvy.

S(I wouldn't freely approach all houses flying flags)quinney

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OCCOM BILL wrote:

Francis wrote:
And, yes, I have a problem with the One Nation Under God...
Not my favorite part either, to be honest... because I care neither for the presumption nor the arrogance but the balance of it more than makes up for it IMO.

The pledge of allegiance, originally written by a Baptist minister, did not contain the words "under god," until it was added at the height of the "red scare" in the early 1950s.

Quote:

Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the orginal Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousing, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

The Pledge of Allegiance: A Short History.

I have always found the provenance of the pledge to be ironic, given the socialist views of its author. In the 1950s, conservatives saw it as an opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag, so they added the "under god" tripe, and began more than 50 years of ranting about patriotism.

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

-- Samuel Clemens

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it."

-- George Bernard Shaw

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

-- Oscar Wilde

"Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy"

-- George Bernard Shaw

And, my personal favorite:

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

-- Samuel Johnson

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hmmmm, so apparently I'm not a liberal, and Setanta will have no objection to giving up his American citizenship.

interesting spin