Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The Gryphon is a fan of this online comic called PVP. He reads it regularly and points out to me comics he thinks I'll enjoy.

Today, he directed my attention to the daily column, "When Captain America throws his mighty shield..." about how the artist, Scott Kurtz, was playing an online superhero game and created a Captain America type character, and then was dismayed at the poor reactions he got from players, mostly American.

Since he didn't want to get drawn into a political discussion, he came up with inoffensive ways of replying to people, to defuse the tension, such as, "I hope you're registered to vote" or "The country is only as good as you kids make it," or for a funny response, "I defeated Hitler's reanimated body to defend your freedom to say that."

I would have to say that was the best way to handle it, but the truth is that in today's political times, simply waving the U.S. flag can be incendiary. I mean, consider the directive to U.S. athletes competing at the Olympics. They've been warned not to show too much excitement or flaunt the American flag if they win, because it could be seen as inflammatory.

It seems dreadfully unfair that American athletes who worked hard to achieve excellence in their fields have to be more cautious than, say, a South African athlete, who could freely fly the national flag after winning an event.

One of the failings, I always felt, in the American political structure is the fact that the president is both the political and the ceremonial head of the country. Our idealistic founders most likely did not see this as a problem, because they envisioned a government of the people and by the people, which would, by that very nature, be held to a higher standard, a self-correcting machine.

The problem is, however, that without any sort of a separation between the ceremonial and the political, whoever heads the country at that moment comes to represent the very heart and soul of America itself.

This is fine when you have a leader who is respected or even beloved around the world, such as a Ronald Reagan or a Bill Clinton. It's not so fine when you've got someone unpopular.

And of course, regardless of who's in control, certain quarters will always disagree with the United States. We can do little about that.

But for those Americans who despair at what America has come to represent, I agree with Scott Kurtz: the power is within you to change it. First by voting, of course. But also by striving to set a good example in the world.

If our athletes, for example, cheer and celebrate when they win but are also gracious to other athletes, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be proud to let people know where they're from.

Likewise, if we stand tall on our principles, yet show compassion and understanding, both in America and in the world, again, I think we can show the world what this country is all about.

America is severely divided right now. The last thing we should be doing is fighting amongst ourselves. We need to look for solutions. We need to look for common ground. We need to look for the areas where we agree. And through that, find our common strength.

Perhaps our Founding Fathers didn't err, but simply believed that with our self-correcting government, and with our guaranteed rights, we would have no need to separate the ceremonial from the political. We would live up to our best standards, our highest ideals. If not this moment, then the next. And it would all balance out in the end. It still may.

This doesn't seem like much comfort when you're standing on the middle of a seesaw, wobbling back and forth from one extreme to another. But we should take some comfort from the fact that when we feel a wrong has been committed, we have established ways to set them right. And we Americans believe in justice. We believe in fairness. We do believe.

The American flag does not represent the current president of the United States, the current policies. It represents more than 200 years of a country finding its balance. Erring at times, even egregiously. Wronging people, perhaps, and then making it right.

When it comes right down to it, we're all human. But as a nation, we aspire to better than that. We have different views about what that means, and so we disagree. But just like members of different religions can all agree there is a higher power, we Americans may disagree on everything but agree that as Americans, even in our disagreements, we will strive together for our highest ideals.

I think Captain America would agree.

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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