Empty flames
A woman was burned alive in her bed, so I burned a flag. You did not get angry at her death, but you called me unpatriotic.
A child was crushed under the rubble of his home when the bombs fell, so I burned a flag. Again, you got mad at me and labeled me a traitor.
An innocent black man was shot in front of his family, so I burned a flag. You called me names and you threatened me with violence.
Lies were told to take us to war and I burned a flag, but still you point at me as the problem.
Your Congress and Senate votes for more bombs and threatens to take away your health care and I burn yet another flag, and still you look at me and tell me I am ungrateful.
Peaceful natives on their own land are gassed by police in tanks and I torch the flag to again find your outrage directed at me.
All of these things happen around you, yet here I stand as the enemy. I am the provocation of your anger. A simple act of awareness is what moves you to speak. Atrocity and genocide do not move you. Injustice has no sway.
Tell me. If this flag means so much to you, what is left for it to bear a standard other than your anger at me for using it to show you the truth?
Timothy Havener, Mill Hall
This story was originally published September 24, 2017 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Empty flames."