My father and his siblings were first generation Americans. His parents (my grands) traveled to the US from Poland (a short time after the 14th Amendment was ratified into the Constitution). They met, married and had 3 children before they applied for Naturalization. My grandfather died before he became a citizen. I never questioned any of this until recently - in today’s society, my dad and his sibling would be considered “anchor” babies.
My dad was a very proud American. He served in the Navy during WWII and his older brother in the Merchant Marines. Every “flag” holiday dad would hang the American flag (center) flanked by a Polish and an Irish flag (my mom’s patriarchal ancestry was Irish). He taught me to respect what the flags represent…our heritage. In teaching me the heritage, he taught me appreciation for where we all come from… > somewhere else.
The American flag has always been displayed (multiple places) in my home. I’m grappling with all this now. Slowly many of my flags have been taken down.
I’m not comfortable with the direction the American Experiment is going. I’m not comfortable that the moral creed of “love they neighbor” is replaced with hate. I know there has always been hate, but I see this country running toward a divide like we had in the 1850s. It is going to be difficult to “celebrate” tomorrow.
I remember the hoopla of the Bicentennial! We had a family reunion to celebrate. The world was excited. In contrast, the Sesquicentennial just seems sort of blah.
After 9/11, I remember how people pulled together. People where making art to celebrate America! I participated in a sewing event. We were asked to make a quilt square with a “flag heart”. These blocks would be collected and assembled into a quilt (or multiple quilts — I don’t quite remember which). I was new to quilting and made an extra block for me to keep (photo). Today, I wish we all had that same kind of connectedness about the meaning of the stars and stripes and all that it stands for.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
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