Maybe there’s some hope after all
Recently I spotted something while riding through my neighborhood on the elevated subway that made me do a double take. In many parts of the country a person wouldn’t even give this a second thought, but for NYC it’s the equivalent of spotting a polar bear swimming on Miami Beach.
Completely covering three large windows on three separate units of a new apartment building were the following flags:
You have to understand that the American flag is almost as rare as the Dodo Bird in this city. Sure, you’ll easily spot just about every flag from around the globe, (especially from the third world) but the American flag – no way!
Then there’s the Gadsden flag (don’t tread on me) which has sort of become the unofficial flag of the Tea Party movement. There may be plenty of teabaggers in my neighborhood, but Tea Partiers – can’t be!
Last but not least, there’s the United States Marine Corps (not corpse) flag. In NYC appreciation for the military is comparable to appreciation of a good shower in France. You may still be able to spot this flag in the window of VFW hall, but in the window of a building inhabited by yuppies – impossible!
Maybe, just maybe, some “professional” young people are beginning to wake up from their higher education and media induced stupors. Maybe they’re beginning to realize that their expensive educations won’t be worth crap if our government continues down this path. Maybe they’re pissed off that their company provided healthcare benefits will soon be history. Maybe they’re getting a bit frustrated at how their six-figure salaries don’t look so great after the Feds, State, and City get their taste. Maybe they’ve come to the point where they’re starting to question the utopian fairy tales of their Woodstock attending, Birkenstock wearing parents, and are waking up to reality.
I know that it sounds like I’m going off the deep end over three flags, but you have to live here to appreciate the magnitude of such a sighting. I’ll tell you one thing – I didn’t see these flags a year ago!
Reader Comments
All I can say is, WOW. Those flags are not all that uncommon way out hear in far south east Broolyn, but I rarely if ever see an American flag (and never a Gadsden or Marine Corps) when I leave these cozy confines.
Mags,
I hear you; I love Brooklyn, and I know that there are still some parts of where people aren’t ashamed to be proud of their country. Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, etc. (My wife was born in Brooklyn) Up here in Northwest Queens it’s a different story because most of the old school middle class people have long moved out to Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Jersey, Westchester, etc. When I was growing up the community was dominated by “Reagan Democrats.” The neighborhood is now comprised of mostly three kinds of people: the government addicted – the illegal immigrants – and the out of town yuppies. The yuppies have been moving here in droves over the past decade because of our close proximity to Manhattan. I’m truly glad they’re here because they really helped to revitalize the area, but they have two problems from my political point of view. One is that they’ve drank the progressive Kool-Aide that their Universities and Colleges served them, and two; they hear about New York’s liberal reputation so they feel that they have to live up to that in order to be accepted – they tend to go overboard in order to fit in.
Hopefully more people will wake up once they come to grips with where this bunch in Washington is leading us.
My regards to Brooklyn….
Very true. As a New Yorker myself, I’d be shocked too. But it also depends on what neighborhoods you are in. Parts of the boroughs are more conservative/liberal than others. Definitely rare though, I know what you’re talking about.