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The Chicago suburb of Midlothian is promoting itself as "the village of Lighted Flags," installing illuminated flagpoles (protocol requires lights at night if the flag is to be flown) so that the Stars and Stripes can fly 24 hours a day. Thirty such poles are now in place. Says Midlothian President Harry Raday: "I don't think it's political. It's the simple fact that the majority of people in the U.S. are pretty damned proud to be here. And they're tired of seeing pictures of people with beards hanging down to their damned navels with love beads on, pulling down the flag or urinating on it or some other damned thing. It's our flag. Thousands of guys died for it." Detroit's station WJBK runs a spot on its evening news beginning: "Today the flag flies at . . ." and showing footage of houses or stores that display the Stars and Stripes.
In the South, until recently, the main concern was the use and abuse of the Confederate flag, and the Fourth of July was a Yankee nuisance that coincided with the fall of Vicksburg. Now, there is a new passion for the national symbol. Ronnie Thompson, the mayor of Macon, Ga., enlists the city fire department each day for a solemn flag-raising ceremony in front of city hall. Georgia's Lester Maddox, in the hospital with a kidney ailment, is embowered in red, white and blue floral arrangements.
Those students who fight back against dissenters are especially prized. In Houston, a 20-year-old Rice University graduate student, Sidney Drouilhet II, was guest of honor at a Chamber of Commerce banquet because he filed charges against three other young men for dishonoring a flag. When 150 San Diego State College students tried to half-staff a campus flag after Kent State, Bill Pierson, a 6-ft. 5-in., 250-lb. football center, held them off singlehanded for three hours and became a Horatius figure in conservative San Diego.
Many Americans, particularly those with memories of World War II, retain a sense of the flag as a solace. Says Psychiatrist William D. Davidson: "When an American soldier dies, what is his family given in exchange for his life? A flag. This gives his death meaning."
Double Standards
The Establishment—especially local and state authorities—is increasingly un-amused by unorthodox use of the flag. In recent months the number of arrests for flag abuse has risen geometrically. In Massachusetts, under an 1889 law recently dusted off, two youths have been sentenced to a year each in prison for wearing the flag as a patch on their trousers. At Denver's El Rey shop, customers are returning their flag vests because they cause so much trouble with the police.