Patriotic pride becomes an attitude after 9-11 attacks
Patriotism should be shown everyday and not be just a once a year occurance.
COMMENTARY
Jacque Petersell

It could have been a day just like any other. I was walking to school when I passed a basket filled with goodies sitting in front of a house. A sign read, “Help yourself.” So I did, and walked on.

But there was really nothing normal about this day, this walk or this basket. The walk was more of a hike through the neighborhood behind the Moudy Building. The goodies in the basket were little American flags.

The day was Sept. 11, 2002.

I’ve never been very patriotic. Growing up I would say the “Pledge of Allegiance” only because my teachers made me. And I always just folded my hands behind my back. The Fourth of July just happened to be a cousin’s birthday and there happened to be fireworks. If there happened to be a flag in my front yard on that day, it was because my sister put it there. And Flag Day didn’t even exist on my radar.

I don’t remember much about the Persian Gulf War. I lived in Houston and attended a small conservative Lutheran church and school. The people there loved George Bush. I was only told this war was right because the United States was the good guy, and everyone else was bad. But all I saw was fires and death.

It’s not that I disliked the flag, military or government. I felt safe. I didn’t understand what was happening in Iraq any more than what was happening in Washington. I wasn’t personally affected, so I had no need to pay tribute. I never thought I would lose the protection the flag seemed to give me.

Years later, in an event that has stained people’s hearts and minds, came another day that will live in infamy. Sept. 11, 2001. The day when four planes crashed, the Twin Towers fell and thousands of lives were lost.

In the days after the attack, flag sales soared. Flags in every size, shape and price were disappearing from shelves. On Sept. 13, 2001, several local hardware stores said they sold out of flags the day before and weren’t expecting shipments in until the end of the week. In an earlier interview, Delfino Chaves, an assistant manager at T&C Hardware, a local hardware store, said he had been sending customers to other places for flags, but that so far they had been unsuccessful.

In those first weeks and months following the attacks, you couldn’t find a neighborhood that didn’t have houses draped in patriotic themes. Cars had flags flying from antennas or plastered to back windshields.

I was one of them.

On Sept. 11, 2002, I picked up a flag from another American and then went about my day. I noticed the other flags in front of people’s homes and on their cars. I noticed the slew of red, white and blue ribbons pinned to their shirts.

On Sept. 12, 2002, they were all gone.

Americans, like myself, tend to take the flag, government and military for granted. It isn’t until we feel we have been compromised; when we feel we may not be entirely safe, that we go running to hide under our security blanket of red, white and blue.

People say Americans have come together as one. We are all united now. We have a common cause.
And we are united.

But we are all hypocrites.

How many times have we criticized the government for doing too much or not enough? How many times have we watched as other people burn the flag in protest? Why is it that it takes an anniversary or holiday to show loyalty to the United States?

You never know what you have until it’s gone. Last year, within a span of minutes, I lost my sense of innocence. And while I didn’t lose anyone in the attacks, I lost friends to the war on terrorism as they left for Afghanistan. Friends who were sent on a top-secret mission, who I haven’t heard from since.

But we still have our flag. We still have a faith in the government that it will keep us safe. And we shouldn’t wait until we lose anything before showing some loyalty to what we still have.

The flag I pinned outside my apartment one year ago still remains there. The flag I placed on the back of my pickup is faded almost beyond recognition.

But at least now I know why they are there.

Copy Desk Chief Jacque Petersell is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Houston.