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Should we have a flag of grief..... [1]

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Date: 2023-08-29  

During a drive recently I saw one of the still pervasive MIA-POW flags, a field of black with a white logo.

Now, years ago it came out that the Pentagon was responsible for the design and initial production of those. And that it was designed as a form of propaganda to boost enrollments and to support for our armed incursions in various parts of the world. The article also stated that the flag was pushed though knowing there were myths of hundreds or thousands of American servicemen missing or held in captivity when the reality was that, at the time there were fewer then 50 unaccountable,missing or held prisoner. And that was while our Vietnam conflict was still going on.

Now I am NOT meaning to put down the flying of this flag! Not at all. We lost thousands in south east Asia and that tragedy should not go unnoticed despite the causes or lies behind it and kept it going well beyond any reasonable excuse. The same could be said for our more recent military actions. Brave men and women stood up for our country thinking or knowing they were protecting a way of life here.

But I am curious if a different flag might be designed and flown at homes across the country, one recognizing our many children and others that perish in our never ending spree of mass shootings.

And like the other flags that inverse the colors of our red white and blue with a single black line indicating a personal loss of a first responder perhaps such an addition could be made to this flag recognizing our gun violence — an indication that a family member died unnecessarily but violently.

Just a thought or suggestion.

I figure we as a country are avoiding reminders. News reports of mass shootings are blending together like so many weather reports - we are inured to daily tragedy and, as such, are not pushing for change with any consistent or strategic efforts. Perhaps watching a flag recognizing these deaths on American soil start appearing and multiplying may change that. And such a flag would not be a propaganda tool designed to prey on the rah-rah-rah, semper fi crowd of (so called) patriots but on the citizens wanting acknowledgement that we have a problem that is not going away and needs to be addressed. More American lives are lost each year on American soil then in any combat arena in the last forty. Combined.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/29/2190276/-Should-we-have-a-flag-of-grief

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