Okay, I would have thought it was obvious which of the people in the article were jerks. And just because they have a right to their opinion does not make them any less of a jerk.

Details:

From the LA Times article:

Earl Katz marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War in the 1960s. The 59-year-old philanthropist even raised funds for a Jane Fonda documentary in which more than 100 American war veterans confessed to atrocities in the southeast Asian conflict. On Wednesday, he raised an American flag outside his Marina del Rey home.



"I was a patriot then and I'm a patriot now," said Katz. "The flag represents the best of what America can be. It's not a right-wing symbol."



Not a jerk. His politics sucked during the Vietnam War. I don't know what they are now. But his statement above is correct, regardless of politics.

Roger Lowenstein, a patriot too, disagrees. Lowenstein is not flying an American flag. Nor will he. "I grew up suspicious of the flag," said the 58-year-old educator from Los Angeles who also protested against the Vietnam War. "It meant right-wing politics. It meant repression. It meant arrogance. It meant, 'We're the greatest.'"

Jerk. Why he is labeled a "patriot" is completely unknown to me. The fact that he is an educator is no big surprise either. From any objective standard, this country IS the greatest.

Lowenstein offered one way to make a patriotic statement without waving a flag. To bolster the volatile stock market, he urged Americans to buy one share of stock in whatever company produces their favorite consumer product. "We'd be making an incredible statement," he said. "The market would go up 500 points and our society would be saying that they can't break our financial markets and institutions."

Good idea, even from a jerk. I pumped $2,000 into mutual funds on Monday. I may get screwed, but it's the principle of the thing. Besides, I got a GREAT price.

Among the flag wavers is John Keaveney, 52, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and now runs an L.A. nonprofit group that serves homeless veterans. American flags adorn walls, parked trucks and office doors all over Keaveney's office. "I wore my flag tie yesterday," he said "And I'm sleeping with my flag pajamas on."

NOT a jerk. I don't know whether he is liberal or conservative, and yes, flag pajamas are a bit silly, but the fact that he runs a group to help homeless veterans shows that unlike many people from either end of the political spectrum, he puts his money where his mouth is.

For other Americans, deciding whether to display the flag hasn't been so simple. On one hand, they want to show solidarity with Americans affected by the tragedy, but they don't want to appear jingoistic. Some fear an excessive display of flags means an implicit endorsement of war.



"I feel confused and disconnected [from the flag]," said Jodie Evans, a 47-year-old Venice political activist. "Haven't people learned anything in the last 30 years? Haven't they been watching what America has been doing around the world? Instead of feeling humility and compassion, it seems like the flag is being flown to just arrogantly continue what we've been doing."



Good God. This person is just plain too stupid to be a jerk. What has American been doing for the last 30 years, exactly? What will we continue doing? I bet she couldn't be more specific if you asked her this, although she may babble something with the word "imperialism" in it. This is just crap parroted from the people she hangs out with. She probably hasn't sprouted an original thought in twenty years. I know dozens of people like this.

Ira Glass, 42-year-old Chicago-based host of Public Radio International's "This American Life," is struggling with the issue. "The first day [after the attacks], it felt like waving a flag was an act of mourning," he said. "But now that we're going to war {nbsp}... waving a flag feels like giving carte blanche to Congress and the president to do whatever. And I don't believe that." Nonetheless, Glass said, he has warned his girlfriend, who is Arab American and lives on Chicago's North Side, that she ought to put up a flag since the other houses on her block are displaying them.

War? God forbid. I wonder exactly what has to be done to this country before we are allowed to get pissed. At least he is conflicted, which probably lifts him out of "jerk" status.

And yes, it is a shame that Arab-Americans feel they have to display a flag to defend themselves (another example below). That is a sad reason for having to show a flag.

Some are making a compromise of sorts. Troubled by the nationalistic implications of red, white and blue, activist Barbara Dority of Seattle placed a white ribbon on a tree outside her house as a symbol of peace.



"I love my country," said Dority, 52, executive director of the Washington Coalition Against Censorship. "Nothing allows people to commit atrocities more than the belief that God is on their side and that's what we're seeing here."



Nationalism? I guess that's bad. I sure hope her last sentence is in reference to the attackers, and not the Americans displaying flags. It's not clearly worded. If she's talking about Americans, then this woman is a good astronomical unit past "jerk."

Carol Nackenoff a political science professor at Swarthmore College, sees two distinct currents swirling around the ubiquitous flag demonstrations today. The first includes those who wave the flag in defiance of the demoralization and fear that occurred after the attack.



"It's saying we are not down. We are united," said Nackenoff who has researched the use of symbols in American politics. "We are not going to be destroyed by something like this. We are still proud."

The other motivation, argues Nackenoff, is more bellicose and chauvinistic. "The flag, too, I think is being used a symbol to say, 'We're going to get you,'" she said. "It's a Rambo statement."

..."If we engage in Rambo tactics," said Nackenoff. "We may see the flag evolve into a symbol of hostility. And instead of public expressions of support and sympathy from around globe, we may see people burning the American flag in the streets."



And your point is? These are both legitimate and admirable emotions. What the hell are "Rambo" tactics anyway? Anything military at all? Is there any provocation under which a liberal thinks aggression is justified? And people overseas already burn our flag in their streets, even while they walk off with our food and money.

Some members of groups with troubled histories with the United States are ambivalent about the flag. At the Universal Amphitheater last Saturday night, comedian Margaret Cho railed against her own conflicted sentiments. She must now, she lamented, stand behind a president whose politics she loathes.



"God, nobody hates George Bush more than I do," said Cho. But she said she felt compelled to wear the flag. She ended with a moment of silence for the victims and received three standing ovations.



Jerk. First class. The racism of the article writer shows up by plugging Cho into the class of those with "troubled histories", simply because she is Asian. Cho in fact was born in San Francisco four years after her parents left Korea. Remember Korea? The country we sent thousands to die in under that terrible, jingoistic flag so that it wouldn't become a reeking, totalitarian, starvation-ridden anthill like North Korea? Korean-Americans. An oppressed group indeed.

I sure hope Cho is finding enough time off from bashing Republicans to keep up her work as a moral role model for other Asians.

Meanwhile, Japanese American artist Momo Nagano used the American flag to symbolize the emotional wounds inflicted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of her friends and neighbors were forced to leave their 30th Street neighborhood in Los Angeles and relocated to internment camps. In "American Families," she wove the names of 200 people into a wall-sized flag, now on display at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles. "She was just sort of trying to make us look at our country," museum spokesman Chris Komai said. "Our country isn't perfect. It makes mistakes."



And even though Japanese Americans were interned during the war, many still retained a vigorous sense of patriotism, Komai said. "We were the group that was singled out and scapegoated for the attack on Pearl Harbor," Komai said. "I'm lucky because my parents who went through this horrendous experience of being incarcerated never passed on their ambivalence. They pretty much put that camp experience on a back shelf and they didn't tell us about that. Today, we believe in what the United States flag stands for."



Definitely not a jerk. Could easily have become one, had more excuse than most, but didn't.

Even World War II veterans aren't immune from wrestling with exhibiting Old Glory. Sherman Oaks resident Peter Roberts, 78, who was drafted into the Army after trying twice to enlist, doesn't have an American flag in his house and probably won't get one. "I'm not a flag waver by nature," said Roberts, vice president of the American Humanist Assn. of Los Angeles. "I'm an American citizen and I support whatever our American government does, right or wrong."

Geez, I don't know WHERE this guy is coming from. Doesn't have a flag, not a "flag waver" by nature, but pops up with "my country, right or wrong" which is pretty much off the edge even for patriotic types.

Many of those uncomfortable with unfurling the flag contend there are other ways to demonstrate their support for America. Attending candlelight vigils, donating blood, supplies or money and engaging in spirited public debate are also vital expressions of patriotism, they say.

All very good things to do, but it would be interesting to ask each person why they can do all these things, but not show a flag. No, it is not required, but the fact that it makes them "uncomfortable" is interesting. I believe this is decades of organized indoctrination in the self-hatred of our nation and our principles that is coming home to roost. I may have more to say on this later.

...The U.S. flag can be so freighted with meanings and counter-meanings that sometimes its intrinsic value is overrated, according to Jeffrey Prang, a 39-year-old West Hollywood city councilman who is displaying a flag in front of his home. "Just because you don't fly a flag or carry the symbols of patriotism [doesn't] make you less patriotic," said Prang

He is, of course, right. But not flying a flag when there is a movement on to fly one makes a certain statement, just like flying it does when no one else is flying one.

This article comes from my own paper, and has more of the same...

Note another sad example of Arab-Americans flying the flag from fear:

In some cases, that fervor has led to misplaced hatred, and a new reason to fly the flag that is rooted as much in protection as patriotism.



At a time when the nation seems poised for war -- and anger is vented at Arab Americans, Muslims and Sikhs -- some wave the flag as code for "We are not the enemy.''

The first day of the terrorist attacks, young men cruised by Homayoun Khamosh's business on Fremont Boulevard. Very deliberately, Khamosh said, they waved the U.S. flag at him.

"It was to show, 'This is us; you're not like us,' " said Khamosh, an Afghan-American owner of Pamir Food Mart in Fremont.

Khamosh responded with his own flags, which now flank the entrance
to his store. They are there, he said, "to let people know that we are with them."

The flag is his shield, he said bluntly. "It's for protection."



Paranoid? Maybe. Maybe not. I would have done the same.

[A]uthor Scot Guenter, who wrote ``The American Flag, 1777-1924: Cultural Shifts From Creation to Codification.'' [said] "We've been in a dormant period; there has not been a lot of in-your-face patriotism," said Guenter, a professor of American studies at San Jose State University.



Lulled by a sense of security that comes from living in the world's greatest economic and military power, Americans have not needed to prove patriotism or turn to its symbols.

"What happens in a time of crisis is old traditions and rituals will be embraced and reinvigorated," Guenter said. "This is the greatest crisis in my lifetime. That's why we're seeing this reaction."

Still, some struggle with waving what they have come to believe is a symbol for conservatism[Good Lord, No!!], even war-mongering.

"The flag is associated with nationalism," Guenter said, "and some groups equate extreme nationalism with militarism."

Many Americans, though, don't associate flag-waving with love of country.

"When a symbol is that powerful and multi-layered with different meanings," Guenter said, "you're not always sure the meaning you're sending is the meaning received."

That's exactly what concerns Paul Sanford, a Santa Cruz attorney, who said he had to think hard before putting up a huge American flag at his home.

"We put it up to show our solidarity with New Yorkers,'' he said.

But after hearing about the backlash against Arab Americans and others, he and his wife took down Old Glory on Monday.

"Things are just getting too jingoistic," he said.



Jerk? Probably not. He deserves respect for having the balls to display a flag in the first place in the People's Democratic Republic of Santa Cruz. He's lucky he didn't get a Molotov cocktail through his window.

Carol and Terry Austen have never been flag wavers. In fact, they don't have a flag.



"I don't think we feel any different from people who are flying the flag,'' said Carol, a nurse in neonatal intensive care at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose.

Surveying their Rose Garden neighborhood, the Austens were moved by the public display of patriotism.

And then, just like that, the Austens decided they might get a flag after all.

"Things have escalated,'' Carol Austen said. "The enormity of the situation is such that people are seeking comfort, a collective unity. I've always felt it would be nice to have a flag, but it was never necessary. But now, there is a need to have unity, and you do that through a common symbol and the symbol is the flag."



This is probably the feelings of most Americans, and understandable. This person is most definitely not a jerk. Again, what needs to be examined is the cultural training that makes people "uncomfortable" with an American flag.

I've had mine for years. I didn't have it on constant display, because it requires burning outside lights at night. It was out for the usual holidays and special occassions.

It's out all the time now, even though it's back far enough from the street that no one can see it easily. I burn the lights.