This reminds me of a scene from the 1990 movie Green Card. Simply put, an American woman assists a Frenchman to stay in the United States. They are vastly different persons. She comes from a background of education, refined sensibilities and money. His background is poverty.
At one point the woman brags that she and her friends are going to plant 20 beautiful trees in a slum area of the city. She does not get the expected reaction of admiration from Georges. He says, "Well, fine, if it makes you happy, do it" She becomes angry. He shrugs and says, "I grew up in a slum. I didn't need a tree, I needed enough to eat"
Is there anyone in Maryland who isn't already aware that they live in the United States? Is this reminder of any real value?
Perhaps the flag only connotes good things to you. Therein lies the potential problem.
Patriotism can, and often does, slip over the line into jingoism. Patriotism is often used by demagogues to manipulate sincere, but simple-minded persons. Nationalism often leads to horrific crimes and outright war.
Let me offer an illustration.
Suppose a politician makes a speech, loudly bragging: "American apples are the BEST IN THE WORLD! They only have ONE worm per bite in them!"
The crowd breaks out into a cheer of "USA! USA! USA!"
Someone stands up and asks, "Why can't the apples have ZERO worms per bite in them?", and this person gets derided and attacked by the crowd.
Being "the best" is absolutely not synonymous with being "good".
No, I'm not saying you can't like America because it isn't perfect, I'm saying that displays of flags such as yours strongly imply a blind mindset. It's like insisting on wearing the team shirt of your favorite sports team after they got caught cheating; it's delusional.
The American flag has, factually, flown over some evil, cowardly, venal and shameful events. Maybe less pride, and more humility?
Many years ago I was in Prince Frederick with a friend, shopping for groceries.
President Obama was on the cover of a magazine on the checkout rack, and she made a disgusted noise. She said, "He went to other countries and said bad things about America!" in an outraged tone of voice.
I replied, "Well, you DO know that America has done bad things, don't you?" She got a sullen look and refused to answer.
I was not aware of what she was referring to, but checked. Yeah, Obama did a world tour, and made many speeches, apologizing for bad things America had done, while ALSO pointing out horrible things that those countries had done and were still doing. The message was not, "America is evil", it was, "Let's ALL quit being jerks".
But of course, my friend, once her emotions had been aroused, didn't want to hear facts.
For the record, I didn't vote for Obama. I disagreed with many of his policies. That's irrelevant.
"The good" is objective, not nationalist, not partisan.
George Washington was not a British Patriot, he was a rebel, a traitor and a domestic terrorist.
When things are bad, it's important to be free to say they are bad, and these flags are nothing but an attempt to silence dissent,
an attempt at intimidation, as I view them.
Maybe next time, put up something actually useful, such as bluebird boxes.
