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Community Commentary:
Lack of flags shows apathy
By Mike Michaelian
After reading Francesca DuPage's letter regarding the lack of American flags flying on Memorial Day, I must say I completely agree with her ("Lack of flags is disheartening," Tuesday). It's woefully shameful beyond description.
To answer her rhetorical question, I do think that it's an apathy borne out of a general narcissism and a sense of entitlement corrupting American culture as of late. More and more, America isn't a country that provides and protects liberty and is worthy of our allegiance to it, rather it's merely a vehicle to achieve whatever materialistic desires we have.
When John F. Kennedy made the now defunct statement, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," it was a period of time where being American meant something important to the vast majority of its citizens.
It was a time when reciting the pledge of allegiance in school was the duty of every American child, because the adults truly (and rightly) believed that America was the greatest, most noble and benevolent nation on the face of the earth and they wanted to ensure that the love of country was passed onto the next generation. They knew that failure to do so would spell the end of America. Kennedy's generation had to make hard sacrifices to "oppose any foe to ensure the survival and the success of liberty" and they cherished what they fought for.
However, the next several generations (including my own) inherited relative peace in the latter half of the 20th century, and like children getting everything they want from their parents, too many of us have no appreciation for what our forbearers gave their lives for. This prolonged period of peace and prosperity (again relatively speaking) has given everyone the chance to focus on essentially nothing but themselves and their own pursuit of happiness. While not a bad thing in and of itself, we've done it to the detriment of our collective patriotism, where it is indeed "too much trouble" (as Francesca put it) to simply put the American flag out on such a hallowed day as Memorial Day.
Exacerbating this problem is a serious lack of education about American history to the extent that studies are showing that many students across the country lack a knowledge of basic American history. Not to mention the huge influx of immigrants, who also have no understanding of American history and are not being taught or even encouraged to learn. The bottom line is, of course, if we aren't being called upon to make sacrifices ourselves for our own liberty and we're not even aware of the sacrifices made in the past, why would anyone be surprised that fewer and fewer flags appear on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Fourth of July, etc. My heart breaks when I think about how sad it is that veterans would drive up and down the residential streets of Glendale seeing no such outward appreciation being displayed on houses. Though, having said that, I do applaud the city of Glendale for prominently putting American flags up on the main thoroughfares. If the residents of this city don't care enough to show the flag on Memorial Day, at least the city itself is American enough to do so.
All of us should understand this: None of us in any city in these United States (let alone Glendale) would be enjoying life the way we currently are if the cemeteries weren't overflowing with heroes who gave their lives for this country. The absolute least we can do is to show appreciation, and honor the living veterans (who don't even think of themselves as heroes) by doing something as simple as displaying the American flag.
MIKE MICHAELIAN is a Glendale resident.
To answer her rhetorical question, I do think that it's an apathy borne out of a general narcissism and a sense of entitlement corrupting American culture as of late. More and more, America isn't a country that provides and protects liberty and is worthy of our allegiance to it, rather it's merely a vehicle to achieve whatever materialistic desires we have.
When John F. Kennedy made the now defunct statement, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," it was a period of time where being American meant something important to the vast majority of its citizens.
It was a time when reciting the pledge of allegiance in school was the duty of every American child, because the adults truly (and rightly) believed that America was the greatest, most noble and benevolent nation on the face of the earth and they wanted to ensure that the love of country was passed onto the next generation. They knew that failure to do so would spell the end of America. Kennedy's generation had to make hard sacrifices to "oppose any foe to ensure the survival and the success of liberty" and they cherished what they fought for.
However, the next several generations (including my own) inherited relative peace in the latter half of the 20th century, and like children getting everything they want from their parents, too many of us have no appreciation for what our forbearers gave their lives for. This prolonged period of peace and prosperity (again relatively speaking) has given everyone the chance to focus on essentially nothing but themselves and their own pursuit of happiness. While not a bad thing in and of itself, we've done it to the detriment of our collective patriotism, where it is indeed "too much trouble" (as Francesca put it) to simply put the American flag out on such a hallowed day as Memorial Day.
Exacerbating this problem is a serious lack of education about American history to the extent that studies are showing that many students across the country lack a knowledge of basic American history. Not to mention the huge influx of immigrants, who also have no understanding of American history and are not being taught or even encouraged to learn. The bottom line is, of course, if we aren't being called upon to make sacrifices ourselves for our own liberty and we're not even aware of the sacrifices made in the past, why would anyone be surprised that fewer and fewer flags appear on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Fourth of July, etc. My heart breaks when I think about how sad it is that veterans would drive up and down the residential streets of Glendale seeing no such outward appreciation being displayed on houses. Though, having said that, I do applaud the city of Glendale for prominently putting American flags up on the main thoroughfares. If the residents of this city don't care enough to show the flag on Memorial Day, at least the city itself is American enough to do so.
All of us should understand this: None of us in any city in these United States (let alone Glendale) would be enjoying life the way we currently are if the cemeteries weren't overflowing with heroes who gave their lives for this country. The absolute least we can do is to show appreciation, and honor the living veterans (who don't even think of themselves as heroes) by doing something as simple as displaying the American flag.
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