Today is Independence Day in the United States of America where I live. This year we decided not to hang the American flag because we have come to realize that the holiday is a celebration of a war, - a war that led to many more wars, including those waged against the native inhabitants of this land. While King George had been guilty of many crimes, the upper class colonists were not free of guilt, resorting to lies in order to convince the colonists to revolt.* It is also interesting to note that other British colonies, including Canada, gained their rights and independence without a war.
I have learned about the not-so-glorious side of the Revolutionary War on pages 30-31 of the book, War is a Lie by David Swanson. This one quote from these pages is an eye-opener: "Punishment for infractions in the Continental Army was 100 lashes. When George Washington, the richest man in America, was unable to convince Congress to raise the legal limit to 500 lashes, he considered using hard labor as a punishment instead, but dropped that idea because the hard labor would have been indistinguishable from regular service in the Continental Army. Soldiers also deserted because they needed food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and money. They signed up for pay, were not paid, and endangered their families' wellbeing by remaining in the Army unpaid."**
On Independence Day Americans celebrate our freedoms. In recent years I have noticed how many people use these freedoms as an excuse to be self-centered and irresponsible. Yes, in this country we are free to collect weapons of mass destruction, kill each other, spread disease, and deny others their rights to health, happiness, and prosperity. Another reason not to hang the American flag.
Since we have decided not to fly the American flag, I wondered if there was a world flag that would better symbolize my identity as citizen of the world. I found the beautiful world flag pictured above, the blue dot symbolizing the earth that all of humanity shares. The semi-transparent background enables us to see our own world or home through the flag, as well as our common home, the blue planet in the center.
I found this flag on the website: 1worldflag.com. Some of the impetus for this flag comes from the images of our world as seen from space. As I read on the website: "Only a few national borders are visible from space, like the border between South Korea and North Korea at night. . . . But most borders are not visible, and other aspects such as fanatical religious, national or ethnic beliefs are likewise hard to grasp by looking at Earth as a whole. New world maps are drawn by climate change and rising sea levels, which do not distinguish between social classes, nor care about carving out borders. The fact that no single nation-state alone can cope with the global risk of climate change creates a new understanding that the principle of independence and autonomy is an obstacle to the survival of the human race."
Many will call me unpatriotic for stating that I can no longer celebrate Independence Day, and they will be right. As a world citizen, I believe that patriotism and nationalism are dangerous to the survival of the world that I love more than any one part of God's creation.
*Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion, 3rd ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999, p. 328
**Robert Fantina, Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776-2006, New York: Algora Publishing, 2006
