Once upon a time, I tried to write a new national anthem. I don't like ours for several reasons. A) It's about the flag more than the country and B) I don't like the melody. So, I wrote one which was set to the tune of "Scots Wha Hae." It was meant to be more about the people and the history and slightly more humble about our faults. Including this verse:
Americans, remember well
The broken wing, the riven bell
The common man who for you fell
Do not forget their worth
It's about the "riven bell" part I wanted to write this year. My son and I talk a lot about flags. I really don't like ours. From a design aspect, there's just too much going on. And after the January 6th Insurrection, I have little tolerance for the Green Mountain Boys and Sons of Liberty, the terrorist-lite entities/militias whose flags were combined to make our flag.
Design-wise, I would love something more simple. Maybe a circle of stars like the EU flag. Someone made an American version of the flag of Saudi Arabia (Arabic text saying, "There is no God but God and Muhammed is His prophet" above a sword) which I kind of liked. Here are three examples, one religious and one political and another religious with three colors:
The funny thing is, if I were to show this design to a lot of "MAGA" types without telling them it was based on the Saudi Arabian flag, they'd LOVE it! To be fair, I do love the design although I don't love the message it sends. Which leads me to the second point. The flag seems to be displayed more and more as a symbol for those who want to whitewash (clever wordplay intended) our history and pretend like nothing bad ever happened. I'd prefer it used with the Sword of Bunker Hill rather than a musket, if it had to be used.
So, is there an established, American symbol which both embraces the not non-existent laudable history and ideals of this country while also admitting that there are deep-set flaws that have been part of our country from the founding and have been written into the very documents that form the core of our identity? Why yes! The Liberty Bell!
The story that most have heard, and the one which "means" the most, is that it was rung at the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. It cracked.
That would actually be the perfect story. At the moment of the founding of this country, a bell rings out to signal liberty and justice for all. But! There was a flaw in the construction of the bell and it cracked. We couldn't hear it ring as long as the flaw remained uncorrected. In the same way, there was a flaw in the core of the country from the very beginning. This was a new country and we could have made it any way we wanted. And the way we wanted was for liberty and justice to be for the few. Until that flaw was corrected, the country was as cracked as the bell.
If only it were true.
The truth is that the bell was cast and the purchasers didn't like it. So they had another one made. This one continued to be used, though. It was rung when Georg III became king. It might have been rung on July 8th, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was rung publicly. But it didn't crack then. It was hidden in Bethlehem, PA when the British took over Philadelphia. It was used to summon public meetings, call people to worship and remind them to turn in their votes on election day. And it was rung on July 4th commemorations.
No one knows exactly when it cracked, but it definitely happened sometime before 1846. Sometime before then, abolitionists had started to use it as their symbol. They used it as a rallying cry to Philadelphians who hadn't taken a stand against slavery. They used it as a symbol to wake them up from their apathy. And then, at some point, the bell cracked.
Regardless, I think it still sends the same message. It's simple and powerful and goes back to the roots of our country. It tells a truth that our current flag does not. There was something laudable in what we were trying to do. There is something shameful in how utterly we failed at it.
There is another, very important reason we should use this symbol. It is a riven bell. We could start calling the United States "Rivenbell," and isn't that SO. MUCH. COOLER???
Anyway, here's some ideas for flags based on the Liberty Bell.
Trying to think of a comment ... was very unsettling. I realize how uncomfortable I am with our flag, with the way it has been hijacked. I am actually unwilling to display it now, because it has almost come to be a pro-Trumpism emblem.
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few symbols I am unwilling to relinquish despite the attempt to hijack them by others. For example, I'll never give up the cross no matter how many of them are burned. But unless I'm displaying it intentionally to convey a meaning, like that patch on my hat, I don't like to. T**** polluted what was left of it as a positive symbol.
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