Reply to 'anarchist'

Your post is a fine telling of part of the story, 'anarchist.' But what about the rest of it?

I've got at least seven great grandfathers and great uncles who fought in the Revolutionary War, and they and their families all arrived here impoverished, mostly as bondservants, who sold themselves to get out of Brit poorhouses and prisons. With one exception, the highest any of their descendants got up the social scale was to the rank of schoolteacher. One of them, John Hart of NJ, actually signed the Declaration of Independence, for which he lost his farm, lived on the run, wounded and hounded by the Brits until he died. His family had to flee to the frontier in Western PA, as did a number of my other Revolutionary War vet ancestors, who soon found themselves in a mass revolt against Washington called the Whiskey Rebellion and in further protests leading to the Bill of Rights. Some of them to up arms against the native peoples, but most didn't and tried to live peaceably with the Indians, even as Washington violated every treaty. Nonetheless, another Great Grandfather from W PA took up arms again against the Brits in the War of 1812, and dozens again in the war against the Slavocracy, where I've got some buried at Gettysburg and other battlefields.

My point is that is was their flag, too, 'anarchist,' and each of those graves today has a little bronze mediallion and a small American flag on it. I wouldn't advise burning them if I were you.

Think a little deeper and more all-sidedly about these things. For some folks, the 4th stands for more than fireworks, hotdogs and imperialist war.