Flags for Mike, Part 3

This is the end of the ceremony, the raising of the flag to replace the one they took down for Mike. The date is 10NOV09, the U.S.M.C.'s birthday .. what an honor .. truly.

I feel so out of my element off my property because though Salvadoran blood runs through my veins, that's the only part of me that is. I was born & raised (except a few years here & there) in San Francisco. Yes, I know, land of the hippies & everything UN-American in the opinion/thought of most of the country, & actually of most of California as well.

Having said that, I learned the Pledge of Allegiance, my prayers, reading, math, Social Studies, EVERYTHING that was taught in school. At home, it was the same thing. NO Spanish spoken, no Salvadoran food, no Salvadoran/Spanish t.v. or radio & our social circle was either transplants from E.S. married to American men/women or American (we ARE mutts, right). All that to say I feel SO out of place in the company of most ppl outside of my home so that standing in the parade grounds of the U.S. Embassy watching the American flag trying to disentangle itself from the rigid structure, it made me feel as if I was back home. Where the constant flux of ppl w/ their cultures, language & food make waves in the world we inhabit there so that there is a constant struggle of the rigid, who want for things to stay the same: safe & comfortable; while the restless fabric of those new ones & those that have been to be part of "others" & "away" struggle to break free. The result, most of the time, is a whole w/ a completely different look & meaning, just like the pole & the flag. THAT is why I honor our flag, our "land", our "people" & those who serve it all w/ the firm belief that they are the restless fabric that will one day transform all those who want to destroy our structure & to separate the two because they don't understand that the new does not destroy the old but enhances it.

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• Navy vet
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• Marine Corp. birthday
• U.S. Embassy in El Salvador
• military
• military honors