fun with flags

so, back in late january i was summoned into my neighbor’s yard…

…when people need to lift something heavy, and i happen to be outside, that shit’s gonna happen.

when i walked into his yard i admired his last bit of home-based handy work – a set of three flag poles. the one on the far right (he he he) was a trump flag. when i pointed out that both the election, the insurrection, and the inauguration was all behind us, he just shrugged, and said, “well, you never know…”.

i pointed at the four different dallas cowboys stickers on his truck and said, “well, you are used to routing for the team that can’t get it done, ain’t ya?”

the next morning only two flags flew in front of his house.

a couple weeks later we had the snowVid 2021…

about day three of the winter wonderlandness i wandered outside to scoop snow off my car to fill my toilet (don’t get me started) and he and the kids were playing out in the yard and we started chatting. i looked at this two flags and said, “aren’t those basically the same thing?”, because one looked like this…

and the other one like this…

and he said, “that one is in honor of the police…blue lives matter!”

and i replied, “well, if one blue stripe equals ‘blue lives matter’, wouldn’t the SEVEN black stripes mean black lives matter even more?”

the next day only one flag flew in front of his house.

quick note – the design of the “blue lives matter” flag with the one thin blue stripe is meant as an homage to the “thin blue line” term, a term used to denote the line cops draw around other cops to shield them from legal action for what they do even when it’s illegal. i know many will say it’s for the blue stripe on a badge for a fallen officer, but that stripe is almost always black, the typical color of mourning. it’s why even with all the internet footage the police still say that their illegal kills of predominantly black americans are perfectly legal and they never rat out their partners and body camera footage just goes missing. it’s also why your conservative friends say “blue lives matter” to personify law enforcement but use the term “b-l-m” because they can’t say the term “black lives matter” with a straight face because honestly a lot of them don’t actually believe that phrase. while i will be the first to state that the majority of cops are good cops and do a good job i will also be the first to point out that the majority of black folks are good citizens and don’t deserve the harassment, abuse, and outright slaughter they have, for too long, been forced to live with and even expect when dealing with law enforcement. it needs to stop. period.