Waving the flag

By Steve Wiegand -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002

If there are fewer flags flying these days and more attention to economic woes than to learning the third verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner," it may not be because Americans feel less love for their country but because they feel less need to display it.

	Alexis Akers, 10, of Loomis adds her message to a sheet hung on Robert and Charlotte Spears' Roseville home on Sept. 14, 2001. Sacramento Bee/Chris Crewell

PATRIOTISM (noun): love and loyal or zealous support of one's country
ñ Webster's New World College Dictionary

Two hundred and sixty-four days ago, the president of the United States, without fanfare, signed a resolution designating Sept. 11 as Patriot Day.

The resolution directs this president, and future presidents, to issue a proclamation each year asking Americans to ponder the horrific events of 2001. It orders U.S. flags lowered to half-staff.

It might be the most unnecessary law of the past decade.

Few Americans need a presidential proclamation to remember. Of two dozen people stopped casually on the K Street Mall recently, not one had heard of Patriot Day. But all recalled where they were on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 and all said they would never forget it.

Moreover, the exact role patriotism should play in remembering acts of terrorism is open to interpretation.

"The idea of Patriot Day just baffles me," said Chuck Dalldorf, chief of staff to Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo. "To attach that title to September 11, I don't know, what does patriotism have to do with it? It seems to shift the focus from those who died and the heroes of that day and make it a political event."

Dalldorf's credentials on the subject are not those of a sheltered knee-jerk liberal: He's an Air Force veteran who grew up in New York City and whose mother was living there during the attacks. But his thoughts do run counter to assumptions that the events of Sept. 11 created a permanent upsurge in patriotic feelings.

That there was an upsurge is undeniable. The strongest indication was sales of American flags - and just about anything with the likeness of an American flag - which boomed after the attack.

There were flags fluttering from special plastic car racks, flag decals, flag lapel pins, flag tattoos, flag towels and even flag underpants. Flag sales at Wal-Mart stores between Sept. 11 and May 23 more than quadrupled from the same period the year before, and flag sales overall tripled in the wake of the attacks. bought one. A 54-year-old Orangevale insurance agent who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, he used to fly a flag in front of his home only on holidays. A few hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, he put a flag out and has kept one flying ever since, even replacing the original when it wore out.

"I vowed to keep flying it until those responsible for the attacks were caught," Bertino said, "and they haven't been caught yet, so the flag stays out."

According to Jay Mechling, a professor of American studies at University of California, Davis, all this flag-waving was aided and abetted by another aspect of the American mind.

"Even though we are a very individualistic society, there is certainly a strong tradition in the United States of people helping each other and of collectivities in times of crisis," he said. "It may be that people who couldn't drag someone out of the buildings or give blood flew a flag instead.

"So it may have to do more with that sense of community than of embracing patriotism."

	Gurbex Singh displays a flag during the California Day of Remembrance Procession of Heroes on Capitol Mall on Oct. 9, 2001. Sacramento Bee/Randy Pench

Of course the cause of patriotism was helped along by a commercial deluge of red, white and blue after the attacks.

Within six weeks, one airline was running a commercial boasting that a flight crew had upgraded a firefighter to first-class service, apparently just because he was a firefighter, a car company was showing firefighters doing heroic things and urging viewers to "keep America moving," presumably by buying a car, and a toy store chain was inviting parents to bring their kids in to color flags.

"It was a bit difficult to buy anything that wasn't patriotic," said Mechling.

Erick Petersen took a somewhat bigger step than flag flying in displaying his patriotism in response to the attacks.

Last Sept. 11, Petersen was a 24-year-old tow truck driver who lived in Natomas. Today, he's a military policeman who helps provide security at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert.

"I had thought about joining the military off and on," he said, "but I probably never would have done it until the attacks happened."

On Sept. 13 by the National Research Council, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., think tank, concluded most high school graduates would rather go to college than serve in the military, and that unless military wages were raised considerably, patriotism could not be counted on to fill military ranks.

"In spite of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11," the report said, "we see no clear indication that the size of the military will change significantly over the next 20 years."

In fact, surveys taken months after Sept. 11 showed only a slightly higher level of patriotic feelings than surveys taken before that date.

In January 2001, for example, a Gallup poll found that 87 percent of respondents considered themselves very proud to be American. In March 2002, the response had risen, but only to 92 percent. Just after Sept. 11, more than eight in 10 of those polled said they had displayed a flag. By March, the number had dropped, to fewer than seven in 10.

And if voting is a patriotic duty, the events of Sept. 11 seem to have had a negative effect.

	Cameron Langford, 5, with flag, shows his support for the United States outside his family's home in Citrus Heights on Sept. 14, 2001. Sacramento Bee/JosÈ Luis Villegas

In most areas of the country, voter turnout in the primary elections this year has been down. Two weeks ago, the turnout in Georgia was 22 percent, compared with nearly 27 percent in the 2000 primary. That same week, Wyoming's turnout was the lowest in 26 years. And the March primary in California attracted 31.1 percent - the smallest percentage of registered voters in state history.

But if there are fewer flags flying these days and more attention to economic woes than to learning the third verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner," it may not be because Americans feel less love for their country but because they feel less of a need to display it.

"Wars and attacks always bring out patriotism," said Kathryn Olmstead, a UC Davis history professor who specializes in the 20th century. "But it's a little bit hard to compare September 11th to Pearl Harbor, because Pearl Harbor brought on a total war, and so everyone's lives were involved in it and everyone's lives were changed. ... Patriotism was required, it was tangible, whereas after September 11th, it was more rhetorical."

Olmstead said that because the attacks did not affect the day-to-day lives of most Americans, it's only reasonable for patriotic ardor to cool. Another terrorist attack or a war against Iraq, perhaps, and it would heat up quickly.

"If I had to guess," she said, "I would say that if we don't attack Iraq and there are no further attacks, I think it will turn out to have not had a very big effect ... on our level of patriotism or anything else."