The Flag Is Still There...

America these days Is trying to decide what it means to be a patriot and an American. The country is eerily divided over who we are and what we are be. I don't have to name our divisions--we all know them.The pundits make sure that we know what's going on. Maybe what is not what is going on. 

The first picture here I took last week in Oregon. I almost stopped and knocked on the door behind this sign. For these folk capture the vision of a country for all. Like the Statue of Liberty they call us back to the "we...the people" that we have held up through the years as our promise to ourselves and to the world. But we all know that the struggle to live up to our dreams is an unending  challenge to define what America truly is.

These other pictures moved me as I saw them. Ponder their meanings as we really do try to ponder what truly makes America great.

These other pictures by artists have laid out how they feel about who and where we are. 

photo by Steve Baker / flickr

Bill Coffin once said "How do you love America? Don't say 'My country, right or wrong.' That's like saying,. 'My grandmother drunk or sober.' it doesn't get you anywhere. Don't just salute the flag, and don't burn it either. Wash it. Make it clean."

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com