Headline: Flagging Doubts

The driver of the very tall Chevy pickup honked in frustration as he slowly worked his way up Pacific Avenue, towards the Cinema 9 complex. He had a truly enormous flag mounted in the back, and I had to duck under it to point out to him, in a friendly way, that his flag only had 13 stripes on it.

"Really?" he replied, concerned. He turned his pop country music down enough that the subwoofer behind his seat stopped blowing his hair around so much.

He muttered something about the likelihood of it having been made abroad. "What do foreigners know about our flag," he said, before spitting one last time and driving off. He circled around again five minutes later, and again after that, always honking at the slow traffic, the flag big enough to touch the ground.

The decision whether to display a flag or not can be a complex one. Many of us have concerns about how the old USA conducts itself sometimes, and a flag feels like complicity. On the other hand, most of us would not be happy living anywhere else.

When I think about the attacks on September 11, I grieve for those lost. I feel terrible for the friends and families left behind. I want this sentiment to be known, and I consider putting out a flag.

Then I remember the goofball in the truck and think no way.

Back and forth goes my thinking on this issue, so I turn to the video store for guidance.

There is a big Moviehound Video Guide on a shelf in the video store. In it you can get descriptions of movies, ratings, listings of what actor's been in what, and films listed by themes. You can check out all the movies about ballooning, or bad dads, pirates, or the prom. Lots of choices.

No category for flags though. I decide to try Patriotism, and find that the category is called Patriotism & Paranoia, as though they are inseparable. Underneath the listing it says "See also: Propaganda."

So I watch "Independence Day," which is about these big bad aliens who, unprovoked, blast major landmarks in major cities around the globe. America takes the lead and finds their weakness and wins.

This teaches me that maybe the flag represents American True Grit, resourceful and creative and tough and able to decode alien software. Perhaps I will put a flag out. At least I know that the flag is, in fact, supposed to have 13 stripes.

I never thought I'd see Santa Cruz so festooned with the old red, white and blue. Just as there are fair weather sports fans, buying licensed caps and watching games only if their team makes it to the playoffs, there are foul weather patriots, and they're buying their first flags.

They don't seem to know anything about flags. The American Flag Code was effectively brainwashed into me in boy scouts, so I feel a twinge of distaste when I see flags on cars that are unraveling from flapping in the wind on the freeway. Does this represent the unraveling of their resolve? Flags dangle pathetically from the radio antenna of big vehicles owned by people who probably adamantly supported the attempted flag burning amendment a few years back.

The flag code is basically a guideline for treating a flag as an object of respect. I don't like seeing cheap mylar flags in windows. I don't like seeing the flag in ads. I don't like seeing huge displays of flags erupting in yards like mushrooms when one dignified flag will do. I don't like american flags on tip jars.

At least, I don't like these things when I assume the intent of the flag is to represent pride in America. If someone leaving the flag out at night is making a deliberate comment about, say, the long night of fear settling on our once complacent country, so be it. Otherwise, it's supposed to come in at night.

What are people trying to say with their flags?

Perhaps what we need are alternative symbols that narrow down our ideas better. Something new. Something that reflects sadness for what has happened and hope that the most peaceful resolution possible is discovered.

As a teenager, I once came across some neighborhood kids tormenting my younger brother. They had him and his big wheel surrounded, riding their bikes in a circle around him like he was a Ticonderoga separated from the rest of the wagon train. He was crying, and they were threatening him with sticks. At the time, my brother was among the top 5 irritants in my life, but I waded in and chased the kids away.

If anyone's going to pick on my brother, it's me, I was thinking.

If our family had a flag, I might have put that out for a while.

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Sven Davis is a freelance writer and widget builder who took Introduction to Film Theory in 1985.