As some may have noted, I made an couple of editorial comments in my description of my day in Paris during the final stage of the Tour de France, where the American Lance Armstrong won his seventh consecutive victory.

Lance Armstrong’s victory is his alone, and it does not confer glory upon the United States.

This attitude that somehow athletes confer some kind of glory upon their mother country is something that continually irritates me when the Olympics come around. Just because an athlete is from a particular nation, the achievement of that athlete has little or nothing to do with the virtue or vice of that nation.

For an example, look at the medal counts of the former Soviet Union, or the formerly openly-named “communist” and still repressive China.

My “editorial comments” in my post on my experience in Paris were:

American flags were much in evidence, if not always treated with respect:

And then, there are idiots who show less understanding of what the flag represents than those who choose to burn it in protest:

I saw a LOT of idiots choosing to use the American flag as some kind of cape, as a fashion accessory.

If anyone misses my point, here it is in plain words: Those who burn the flag of the United States have a better understanding of the significance of that flag than the yahoos who wear the flag as a cape, being in their own feeble minds “patriotic” when an American wins an athletic competition.

The prompting of my post here was from Indigo, of Indigo Insights, a kind soul who I believe would never want to stir dark thoughts in any patriot, who pointed me to a post at A Collection of Thoughts, which pointed to a post at Blogcritics.org by Kit Jarrell on the movie Black Hawk Down.

To start, I will not dispute the feelings that are stirred by the movie itself.

As a patriot, I did choke up when I saw the heroism depicted in the film.

I understand the limits of the military mindset, however, and when this statement is made:

My belief in freedom and my willingness to do whatever it takes to defend my flag is second only to my belief in God. Yet there are times when I ask myself what the point is. All these blogs, all these soldiers and veterans and people who understand what the price of freedom is - and yet the country is still clueless. The colleges and their anti-recruiters, the feminists and their sanctioning of killing our children, the constant head-in-the-sand syndrome about Islam and its followers. We’re being invaded from the South, by people whose only goal is to have a “better life” by taking what is not theirs. We’re being infiltrated by terrorists whose only wish is to see us all dead.

I must protest.

There is more to the sacrifice of military service, including the ultimate sacrifice, than merely defending “the flag”, but unfortunately, all too often that is what the rhetoric and the outrage reduces the significance of these sacrifices demanded down to, defending a piece of colored cloth…

There is far more to the sacrifice than a colored piece of cloth.

If you are not willing to defend the right of “the colleges and their anti-recruiters, the feminists and their sanctioning of killing our children, the constant head-in-the-sand syndrome about Islam and its followers” to say what they say, then you have no idea what that flag represents.

For it is what the flag represents that is important, not the flag itself.

That is why I did not go to the the multiple idiots I saw wearing the US flag as if it were Superman’s cape in Paris at the Tour de France and say, “Do you know you’re defiling our nation?” because they, in their limited little minds were not defiling the flag but promoting their patriotism… despite what I may have felt.

The flag is a symbol.

It is not the fact.

Defending the flag is defending the symbol, it is defending the ideals of freedom, but it is NOT defending the freedoms themselves, and if you decry those freedoms while claiming you are defending the flag, can you really say you are truly defending what that flag stands for?

What does the American flag stand for?

What does it mean when this flag is “desecrated”?

“Desecration” is a religious term, the definition of which is. “To violate the sacredness of; profane.”

Are we to worship the flag?

I don’t think so.

To hold our principles and fundamental beliefs as written in our Constitution in high regard and worthy of defending, even at the cost of one’s life is not dishonorable, to the contrary; however, to elevate these things to the status of “sacred” and the flag that represents them defies the principles themselves and is indeed meriting the status of dishonorable if this sacredness is expected of others else brand them as “traitors”.

If you do not understand this, then you do not understand these fundamental principles themselves.

Sadly for us all, there are far too many ready to hurl the word “dishonorable” if not “traitor” at those who fulfill the principles but not the vocal fealty to the foundations of our liberties.

In the end, vocal fealties count for nothing, actions based upon principles count for everything.

Look at actions, not words, actions that have truly significant results.

Take the time to think, don’t merely hurl accusations.

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