To the editor:
I was driving through Wellesley Square today on Route 16, and I was struck by a new sight—a huge American flag on the square’s flagpole. HUGE. At first I wondered if the scale of it might be a covert message from a town-employed Trump supporter (given that the flag outside one s door seems to be a signal of that alliance.)
But then I thought…Why should that huge flag, up two weeks before the election, have to take on an association with ONE subset of voters, a movement which coopted our flag from its real meaning? Such a conspicuous and prominent American flag, I thought, could very well be an homage to the free election coming up.
For me, the flag signifies Democracy and the pillars and structures which define it: the Constitution, the Rule of Law, separation of Church and State, the Bill of Rights, the three branches of government, and the ongoing good-faith effort and process of trying to achieve the ideal standards of our Constitution for all of our citizens.
In school we learned about the Boston Tea party’s motto “No taxation without representation,” that citizens have the right to protest peacefully, and of many other constituents of our government. And we learned about free speech, which did not include relentless lying about basic facts so as to mislead and destabilize half of our population. The principle of free speech, it seemed to me way back then, would always prevent books from ever being banned in our country.
It deeply saddens me—and frightens me even more—that this election may bring us to the point where peaceful protesters may be hurt by the National Guard and even the active military; that we may lose the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, FEMA, and all civil service positions to make way for appointees by one and only one person; that we may even lose the right to a free and fair election, and a free press. I worry about a lack of cooperation with our allies, France and England, for whom my uncle died (without ever meeting his son) in WWII, and the now-democracy of Germany; I worry that our dear country will be aligned with Putin instead. I worry about having just lost the rule of law regarding presidents, so that we are pulled back to legal standards of the 12th Century, before the Magna Carta.
So much to worry about. Whether our Constitution and democracy will survive.
I will choose to see that huge flag as a symbol of our country’s rule of law, its high ideals, its historic role—in many (not all) international events—as being people of decency, courage, honesty, and forthrightness.
Laurel Meyer
Wellesley resident
