Here's Why I Don't Fly Flag

Regarding the June 29 letter, “Where were flags on Flag Day?” in which the letter writer stated, “Shame on all of you who failed to honor America” by not flying the flag: I honestly thought about flying our flag, but considering the abominable condition our country is in, I decided to leave it in the drawer. I am quite certain that many citizens feel the same way I do, as only one flag flies on our block. At this time in history, most of us are not proud, flag-flying Americans.Am I supposed to be proud of a country whose government is slowly stripping us of the constitutional rights bestowed us by our forefathers? Proud of the 2,500-plus dead men and women who died in Iraq for nothing? Proud of a government so narrow-sighted that it spends billions of tax dollars on an illegal invasion of a county that never attacked us, yet ignores poverty and global warming?The shame does not fall on those of us who failed to fly the flag — the shame falls on the worst government in the history of the United States. If only more Americans would come out of their flag-flying comfort zone to see that our country is quickly sliding into a dictatorship where the voice of the people will not matter anymore.A small group of war-mongering, oil-rich Republicans is making decisions for all of us. They've taken away our basic right to privacy, and now our voting rights are on the chopping block. Once they're gone, our democracy is finished. Sorry, unfortunately I'm just not in a flag-flying state of mind lately. Bernadette Buckley, Atlantic City Published in the Atlantic City Press July 11, 2006.