By DONALD DeMARCO
The Good Book, which makes no concession to political correctness while conveying a message that survives the test of time, tells us: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18). In this respect, it differs radically from the daily newspaper. The difference between these two sources of information may be compared with the difference between eyesight and vision.
The roots of eyesight are in the optic nerve. One sees what is going on in the moment. The roots of vision are in the heart. The heart sees what the eye cannot see. It focuses on something grander, something good that has not yet come into being.
A nation must have a vision in order to survive. Without a unifying vision, people are let loose, like pearls from their unifying string, and become aimless wanderers, desperately trying to have their own way and warring desperately against each other.
A nation’s vision is exemplified by its flag. The flag of the United States of America symbolizes the notion that all its citizens are Americans and are entitled to all the rights and privileges for which that that country stands. It conveys a unifying message, one that arises not from something reported in a newspaper, but from a vision shared by all who come together to seek a better life and live in harmony as one nation. We must return to civics 101: “Where there is no flag, the people perish.”
Drew Brees is one of the NFL’s outstanding quarterbacks. In 2010, he led his New Orleans Saints to their first Super Bowl championship by a 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, and was named the Most Valuable Player. Brees is known for his extensive charity work in New Orleans. Recently, he and his wife contributed $5 million of their own money to assist victims of the COVID-19 virus.
All this was set aside, however, when he stated that he “will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”
We are currently suffering from acute short-sightedness and can lay a great deal of blame for this sorry condition on the media. Distinguished historian David McCullough avers that “the study of history is an antidote to the hubris of the present — the idea that everything we have, everything we do, and everything we think is the ultimate, the best.” President Woodrow Wilson was on the mark when he said that “The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. Respect for the flag is timeless and unassailable.”
Brees was royally abused for his statement. NBA analyst Charles Barkley opined on the matter: “It was insensitive, especially during this time, but I thought the negative reaction was overkill. I’ve never heard a bad word about Drew Brees in my life. He made a mistake but we’ve got to a point in society where everybody in social media thinks they are God, judge, and jury.”
Under a barrage of criticism, Brees apologized. He did have a supporter, however: The President of the United States: “[Brees] should not have taken back his original stance on honoring the flag, our magnificent American flag. Old Glory is to be revered, cherished, and flown high.”
President Trump would have happily endorsed the lyrics penned by Ira Gershwin in 1931 for his brother’s tribute to the flag, Of Thee I Sing: “Shining Star and Inspiration / Worthy of a Mighty Nation.”
The American banner has weathered many storms and, in the immortal words of Francis Scott Key, “The flag is still there.” In August of 1925, 60,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan, with the approval of D.C. officials, marched to the White House to display their ever-increasing numbers across America. As the New York Sun reported, “The Klan put it all over its enemies. The parade was grander and gaudier, by far than anything the wizards had prophesied. It was larger, it was thicker, it was higher in tone.” At that time there were between 3 and 5 million Klan members. This was, indeed, a most disconcerting spectacle, but the flag continued to wave.
In 1963 five times as many people crowded Washington, D.C., and listened in rapture to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. King had not lost sight of either the flag or the vision.
Historian Shelby Foote, an authority on the Civil War, pointed out that before the skirmish, people said, “the United States are,” emphasizing state independence. After the war, it became “the United States is.”
“And that sums up what the war accomplished,” according to Foote: “It made us an ‘is’.” A great deal of blood has been spilled to make the United States united. The flag bears testimony to that fact. It is what has endured when some many other things have faded into oblivion.
The flag is not a witness to current atrocities. It is a shining hope that things will not always be this way. Love is both accepting as well as forgiving. “With all your faults, I love you still,” from It Had To Be You, by Isham Jones and lyricist Gus Kahn, represents the heart of any true lover.
No one, no thing, and no country is perfect. If we waited until perfection arrived, no one would ever love, no one would ever be loved, and the world would descend into an abyss of permanent misery.
Robert E. Lee has been much maligned in recent years. In 2017, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who does not think that there is any place in his state for pro-lifers, had the distinguished general and educator’s bust removed from The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, situated on the grounds of Bronx Community College.
Nonetheless, like Drew Brees, Lee had something to say that is worth reiterating and even taking to heart:
“The march of Providence is so slow and our own desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus of St. Jerome’s University, and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary. He is a regular columnist for the St. Austin Review and is the author of 34 books. His latest books, How to Navigate through Life and Apostles of the Culture of Life, are posted on amazon.com. He is also the author of How to Flourish in a Fallen World [En Route publishers]. Reflections on the Covid-19 Virus: A Search for Understanding is in production.)
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