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There are a lot of good, intelligent things being said as part of these anniversary observances, including a lot of things that were quite apparent ten years ago but which, hearteningly, seem to be spoken a bit more freely now. Indeed, most of the things I would say have probably been checked off.

One thing, though, one small thought/request now that it’s been 10 full years—

Can we dispense with the mandatory flag lapel-pins, now?

Seriously, I don’t know how making it obligatory for all of these people to walk around with a little ticky-tack tin replica of it actually honors the American flag, or the ideals which it should symbolize either. But I recall that, 10 years ago, everyone wanted flags or flag images everywhere, and perhaps this was emotionally comforting; so be it. In most ways, we have subsequently gotten over this and restored a normal degree of flag-ubiquity, since. Can we do so with lapels, now? It just looks cheap, and silly, and forced.

If terrorists do still “hate our freedom,” that’s all the more reason to protect and celebrate it. Jacket-lapel freedom shouldn’t be left out.

I am starting to slide into “vacation” mode and may not have anything for a while. So just in case, I present another in a series of posts which I basically wrote and finished except for putting them in WordPress or actually, y’know, posting them, and then forgot about as weeks became months. In this instance, I examine the notion of a growing “anti-government” mood in America; this was written months ago but the broader themes are probably at least as relevant right now.

I have read, of late, a number of stories reporting that “Americans’ trust in government is reaching new lows.” And as far as it goes, I’m sure that’s true enough. But I suspect that it’s a misleading truth, nonetheless, without considering a broader context.

To be honest, I don’t have any new observations to add, per se. But I feel like someone needs to connect the dots between various observations of others, in an explicit fashion. I think that it can and should be said that falling trust in government, while real, is taking place in an environment of falling trust in any and everyone.

More and more each day I get the impression that, probably due mostly to economic stress, social consensus is fragmenting. In America, the divide between liberal and conservative may be as vast and as bitter as it has ever been. Crucially, however, we also find ourselves fracturing along multiple other axes at the same time.

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It’s that time again. Yesterday, the MMQB column of vacationing Peter King was turned over to First Sergeant Mike McGuire for some July 4th, rah-rah boosterism about America’s activities in Afghanistan.

Criticism of this, particularly on our most exuberantly patriotic, flag-waving All-American holiday, would no doubt be very poorly received by many, were they to read any such remarks. Despite the fact that the very document which makes this day a holiday, as the anniversary of its adoption, objects repeatedly to the government of the day’s expansion and elevation of the army within American society. America’s founders were indeed, like much of the nation throughout its early decades, suspicious of and opposed to standing armies in general, British or American. Hardly much precedent for an obligatory “support the troops” sentiment, then.

All the same I’m sure that King, who has sort of “adopted” McGuire as a patron hero during the past several years, would probably at least question my timing in making critical comments, if nothing else. Which is fine, since I’ve long questioned the active and energetic embrace by King, and many others, of “the troops” as a sort of all-purpose, all-weather, nonpartisan, unifying cause for unequivocal celebration. (more…)