America Needs its Girls

 Samantha Hunt, "America Needs it's Girls".  New York Times.  24, 20201, p. SR8.

In our flag I will look fo the national parks, the public libraries, the artists and innovaters, the land where my dead beloveds are buried, the tiny but tremendous mutual aid society my town put together in the pandemic, my daughers' underpaid teachers and coaches, the trees and rivers and children.  I will not forget the genocide greed, hatred, and tremendous inequality in our flag.  I won't be blind to my nation's faults.

 COMMENT

     The public library makes the list of good things promised by the American Flag, along with public lands, and opportunities for education.  The opposite of these public goods is inequlity,  self-interest and prejudice.  The article describes a new  appreciation for American values that the flag represents after the expulsion of Trump from office. This vision is contrasted with the flag waving fake "patriotism" of the political right, specifically associated in the article with belligerant young men in pickup trucks who deliberately tailgate and intimidate other drivers.  After Biden won the election, the daughter declares "Mom, we can hang the flag again!"