Salt on Old Wounds
 I
heard of the French people's legendary arrogance
long before I experienced it firsthand in 2001. And
of course, news junkie that I am, I've seen the
tide of anti-Americanism in France rise ever higher
during the current Iraq crisis. But that's okay.
After my visit to Paris, I grew more anti-French,
so they're just as entitled to their opinion as I
am mine. But something I read today pushed me over
the edge—far over the edge. My blood
boiled when I found out French protesters recently
carried around signs like the one pictured here,
with swastikas painted on the American flag.
Like any writer and patriotic American, I wholly
support freedom of speech (even though the European
Union does not). I may abhor such a hateful
representation of our flag, but I grudgingly
respect the protesters' right to express
themselves. Still, it really pisses me off.
Considering such defacement of the American flag
summarily—that is, without contemplating any
historical context—it is merely offensive.
It's no different than the flag-burning we've seen
around the world for decades. But it makes all the
difference that French people are carrying
such a flag. From the perspective of any American
with a high school-level knowledge of World War II,
such "free speech" is appalling.
Perhaps the intervening 58 years have clouded
the memory of the French people, but it was
American G.I.s, charging across a Normandy beach
strewn with their fallen comrades, who liberated
France from the butchers who wore swastikas. Nearly
10,000 soldiers lie in the cemetery overlooking
that beach. By scrawling swastikas on American
flags and waving them in the streets, the French
protesters are spitting on those graves.
Still, it's not the insult to the dead American
heroes that makes me most angry. They probably look
down from heaven with pity for these protesters,
knowing they'll eventually find their way to that
other, hotter place. What really troubles me, what
really burns me, is the thought of all the
still-living World War II veterans who might see or
read about such protests. In the sunset of their
lives, they deserve respect and gratitude. Instead,
the French people they liberated have heaped salt
on wounds that never fully healed.
I think the French flag is the one in need of a
makeover:
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BEFORE
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AFTER
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Editor's Note: My apologies
to Romania, whose blue/yellow/red flag resembles
the one above.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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Previously...
3/6:
3/3/03,
3:33 p.m.
3/5:
Beer
Day
3/4:
Pulling
the Trigger
3/3:
Make
'Em Laugh
3/2:
Whither
Iraq?
3/1:
Strickland
Cellars
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