The Ever So Elusive Flag Pins

This weekend, for some very strange reason, I finally got around to paying attention to these obviously extremely relevant flag pins that everyone has been on and on about.  I never really thought that flag pins on a politician meant any more to me than lures on a fishing hat.   I always assume they must mean something to the person, but I have bigger fish to fry (like that pun).

My research was definitely in the form of casual observation, but strange as it seems, the only flag pin I noticed all weekend in clips and in rallies was proudly on the chest of Senator Barack Obama.  Not that they were not on the other candidates, I simply was not able to see them if they were.

I never really understood Senator Obama’s aversion to wearing flag pins, but then again I was never sure that it made a difference.  I consider myself to be pretty patriotic, yet I do not own nor remember wearing a flag pin.  I did however suddenly have huge questions when Senator Obama refused to wear on because although I do not wear them, if it was the norm for something patriotic I was participating in, I would have no problem wearing one.  So I assumed that prominent flag pins were the norm in politics and that it was rare and possibly unpatriotic for government officials not to wear them.

Imagine how mortified I was to see this absolute necessity ignored by the other candidates and several politicians all weekend.  I am exaggerating of course about my response, but I was deeply surprised not to see these things. 

I quickly looked at some pictures of Senator Hillary Clinton online in a few different places and I only found one picture that looked like she was wearing a pin that may have been a flag.  I looked at several photos of Senator John McCain and noticed a tiny pin in maybe two of the pictures, but couldn’t even tell if they were really pins much less flags.

I know it is a silly issue and I tried to ignore it as long as I could, but it finally got the best of me and I decided to pay attention.  The problem is that when I did finally pay attention the whole issue turned out to be smoke, mirrors, and invisible flag pins.

I am thinking that if this is such a big issue for Senator Obama that he made some kind of stand publicly, why was this stand overrun simply by a man handing him a flag pin.  On the other hand, if the other candidates and their campaigns want to make such a fuss about this, they should practice what they preach. 

I mean if flag pins were the end of the world for the average American and I was running for office I would have a flag hat, flag shoes, a flag tie, a big flag belt buckle, etc. 

I thought the whole thing was nonsense to begin with, but now I see that the people who brought us the nonsense can’t even face it themselves.