Townie Tidbits

By Sal Giarratani

Always Remember What Our Flag Stands for Every Day

The U.S. flag is under attack today, as are most of the values we grew up with. No one has ever said America is perfect. We have been far from perfect since the Founding Fathers created this democratic republic of ours.

The flag stands for our ideals, which were also the ideals of Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, etc. Many times, our actions and ideals have not always worked well together, but over time, our ideals make it into practice. Just like a human organism, we have matured and evolved into a much better nation over time.

Charlestown is about as sacred a shrine of this nation as anywhere else. The Battle of Bunker Hill was where we shed our first blood in the name of liberty. We may have lost that one battle, but in the end, it was the place that begot America.

I can remember how proud the U.S. was back during the American Bicentennial in the 1970s. For Bostonians, it started in December of 1970, remembering the Boston Massacre, and ended nearly six years later on the Fourth of July in 1976. We weren’t calling our Founding Fathers hypocrites, and we weren’t demeaning their struggle. We weren’t trying to remove their faces from our currency, and we weren’t hiding their statues in closets.

In 1975, I remember watching the Bunker Hill Day Parade as we showed our American pride. We enjoyed that day and every day that we were free Americans.

Today, those who simply do not believe in American liberty are eating up our core values, language and culture. They do not believe in open dialogue or honest debate. They want to break us apart, along with the statues they no longer hold dear.

 I am proud of living in the best country in the world, where any of us can act out as badly as we wish and still have the right to do so.

I really don’t care what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Colin Kaepernick thinks. I believe in an America that continues to grow, but when we stop remembering our past, we will injure our future.

Every single one of us knows the Bill of Rights has our backs. When we stop believing in that, we end up with the likes of thugs wearing masks and breaking the heads of those they disagree with. And where is law enforcement? Rarely seen in places like Portland, Ore., these days.

I voted for President Trump in 2016, like I voted for President Nixon in 1972. When our national walls get crumbled down, we sometimes have no choice when picking our presidents. I am not sorry I voted for both Nixon and Trump. My vote was less about them and more about my country and my democratic republic. We survived Nixon, and President Trump too will pass. However, these attacks against Trump are brutal and unending. The so-called “Resistance” doesn’t believe he is legitimate, but he is. They want to blame the Russians or anything to make them feel justified in their stupidity.

When 2020 rolls around, unless I find a better candidate, I will repeat my 2016 vote for Trump. I will have no choice. I was born and raised a Democrat. Back in 1968, if I been old enough to vote, I would have chosen Bobby Kennedy, but a guy named Sirhan Sirhan murdered him in some hotel kitchen out in California.

The American Dream still lives. It is a bit tattered, but our flag still stands. It doesn’t represent perfection, it represents who we are and who we want to be as a people. Stop yelling and start working together to make America a nation to be proud of again.

Charlestown, U.S.A., is America’s hometown, and don’t you forget it. And Boston is still that City on a Hill.

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