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thedrifter
02-06-04, 06:37 AM
We're obsessed with flags that have lost meaning

February 4, 2004

BY NEIL STEINBERG SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Opening shot



When can we get rid of those black POW/MIA flags that have been flying under the American flag for the past 30 years? Or are we stuck with them forever? I'm all for honoring vets, but the black flag has always had negative overtones, having originated in Rambo paranoia centered around the belief that American prisoners were still in Vietnam years after the war ended and the government was for some reason concealing the fact. The flags, in addition to honoring sacrifice, also suggest, unfairly, something shameful about the country, or at least they did. Now vets say they are just a generic tribute to all the prisoners of war and missing in action. Perhaps. But there are better ways to honor U.S. service personnel. The flags will probably disappear one by one, as those who care passionately about them move on. A good thing, too.

Warning!



Speaking of flags. The leafy suburban paradise of Northbrook, as well as other suburbs, tries to inform its residents of the current state of terrorist peril in a rather quaint fashion. They take the official warning color -- be it yellow or orange -- and fly it in the form of a flag, a plain square of color, under the American flag, on their civic flag poles. I live right by the Northbrook Village Hall and have noticed the flags, in fire engine yellow and land-a-plane orange.

I must admit, I didn't feel warned as much as amused. A village warning flag is only a notch or two down on the quaintness scale from a town crier or a lamplighter.

I called the village president, Mark Damisch, to try to find out who thought up the flags. He was enthusiastic, more or less. "I think it's a wonderful idea, though I don't know how meaningful it is,'' he said. "I just noticed them for the first time about a week ago.'' Damisch didn't know who decided to fly them -- he suspects the Department of Homeland Security recommended the flags in one of their many directives. But he isn't sure.

And while he said he laughed about the flags, he also found a note of caution in them. "It did remind me, even if for five seconds, that we are at war. I didn't think that's a bad thing.''

We are at war, aren't we? American soldiers are dying almost every day. It's amazing how casually people let that fall from mind. Maybe we could design a flag for that. A Doncha Know There's a War On? flag.

Someone's watching you



Speaking of paranoia. The alarming video of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia being abducted in Florida should put to rest another overblown concern. The fear that some people have toward all the security cameras popping up everywhere. With "1984" firmly in mind, they point to the cameras as some kind of threat to our freedoms and paint them as a looming Orwellian menace.

Actually, they are good for catching and convicting crooks. We have a lot of rights, but the freedom to walk around in public unobserved is not one of them. The cameras are multiplying, and they're new, but that doesn't mean they're bad. Time and time again they prove helpful, and one can only hope that they do so again and bring about a miraculous conclusion to this disturbing crime.

Department of puffery



There's a new little sandwich shop in the Renaissance Hotel on Wacker Drive. Apples, coffee, donuts, that kind of thing. Nothing extraordinary. It's located at the top of a small flight of stairs that connects the hotel to a little indoor mall. To help draw people into the sandwich shop, the owners put up a sign promoting the shop, which it says is: "Just 12 Quick Steps Away.''

Perhaps I am a cynical person. And it certainly isn't important, given the wild exaggerations and dubious claims made by advertisers every day. But I couldn't resist counting. Yup: 14 steps.

Beauty and the breast



Thinking "Rhythm Nation"? Isn't that about 10 years old? I stepped outside to smoke a cigar, missed the latest blow against taste and decency, and had to settle for the 500 times it was replayed over the next few days.

Normally, I'd be reluctant to pile on. But people are missing the point here. Why fixate on Janet Jackson's momentary vulgarity, when the true scandal is the sinkhole of tawdriness (did I write that? God I'm getting old) that popular culture has become?

With songs dripping with sexual content (is this the guy who used to howl along to "Honky Tonk Women''?) and ever-more violent movies (who loved "Pulp Fiction''?) it shouldn't come as a surprise that it seeps into places we don't think it belongs. And when did the Super Bowl become church anyway? What did Janet Jackson do but take one baby step away from the lewd routines the stripped-down cheerleaders perform on the sidelines (now I'm taking a stand against cheerleaders. I love cheerleaders. I used to date a cheerleader. What's happening to me?).

Perhaps some good can come out of this incident -- and I don't mean hyping the Grammys -- if people can step back and look at the trash they let infiltrate their children's minds. I used to be on the side of transgression, hooting at the bluenoses and their cherished standards. I tell you, a man passes 40 and before you know it his brain turns to stone. I'm halfway to a Republican.


http://www.suntimes.com/output/steinberg/cst-nws-stein04.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine: