On January 20th, I will, for the first time in years, fly an American flag from my front porch in the standard upside up position. I have been intermittenly, in reaction to one or another particlularly egregious event, flying Old Glory upside down for the last eight years.
My neighbor across the street hates it when I do that. He's a Vietnam Veteran and a Republican and flies his flags rightside up on all the appropriate dates. Oddly enough we have remained on friendly terms for the last fifteen years.
The precincts around my house were historically made up of registered democrats that voted for Nixon and Reagan but then went for Clinton, then Bush and more recently, Obama. During the Vietnam war this town had a military base that was the site of anti-war demonstrations, which were met by violently hostile police and local counter demonstrations. Although this town lies next to a major Black population, they crossed these city limits at their peril. Red lining used to be proudly and openly practiced.
More recently a man in our neighborhood was harassed by the Secret Service for having an effigy in his front yard of George Bush with a knife in his head.
Another neighbor has a large poster featuring a photograph of his dogs with the caption "My pugs are smarter than the president." I love that poster. The pugs are so cute, the sentiment so right on. It was a little glimmer of humor in a dark time. But I am happy to say that in a few more days it, and a concommitant number of other bad things, will no longer be true.