FATHER FLAG ON MEMORIAL DAY

My father flag is different than the flag shown at public gatherings.

His flag was a country boy’s flag, an athlete’s flag, a Silver Star Marine’s flag.

This Memorial Day I thought of him while I raised the flag. For me he is the reason for Memorial Day.

Since my dog wanted to bite the flag on a pole and drag it around the yard, I put it up behind a barrier.

The late sun made it glow. I like a glowing father flag.

Growing up, I don’t recall my dad ever giving his three sons and one daughter marching orders.

I don’t remember him threatening to disown us, or shoot us, if we turned him in for something like, say, storming the Capitol.

He was a man who knew the drill.

The Dog Loves The Flag

The dog wanted the flag so bad I got her a new collar on Memorial Day.

It’s a good fit, don’t you think?

My Father Flag Means More Than Some Flag Shirt Grandstanding Jackass In Houston

All this man wants to do is get to his meeting. His NRA meeting.

In Houston, Texas.

Thousands of devoted NRA members descended to Houston on Friday, 250 miles east of the site where the children, all 10 years old or younger, were gunned down by an 18-year-old with two legally purchased assault rifles. They attended the event, which was headlined by former President Donald Trump — just 72 hours after the massacre — despite other speakers and musical performers canceling out of respect for the victims and as Democrats and gun control advocates called for the event to be canceled or moved.

He doesn’t want to hear anything about gun law reform, restrictions on gun purchases, or listen to concerned voices.

Inside the cavernous downtown Houston event space, the convention proceeded as if the type of AR-15 rifle on display in dozens of booths had not been used to kill 21 people just days earlier. 

I do listen, maybe you too?

The thing that gets me pumped up in life is the collective effort to do better.

It comes with a downside, the shock that so many in low achieving states keep electing people who ‘love the under-educated.’

If we can’t keep predatory politicians out of the hot button henhouse, do we need everyone accessorized with a pocket gun?

What doesn’t get me pumped is urban scum riling up the masses who have a difficult time discerning fact from fiction.

Questions For Deaf Flag Shirt Man

Who is the President of the United States?

Was Jan. 6 just a regular day at the Capitol.

Does a candidate who says he could shoot a man in broad daylight and not lose one vote get your vote?

Do your state gun laws need review?

Since Trump was the big draw at the NRA Convention, the questions answer themselves.

Last question: What do low education ratings, lax gun laws, conservative voting, and anti-abortion sentiments have in common?

My father flag has the answers he learned the hard way, not by listening to some crack-pots spewing bile for cult members to spoon up.

I’m sixty-seven, old enough to tell shit from shinola.

Why? Because I was raised by a man who wanted his kids to do better than him.

I’m passing that wish down, too.