One Flag with Many Meanings
Mike Nalepa
December 6, 2001

The American flag has been everywhere since September 11. It flies off car antennas and highway overpasses. Politicians and news anchors wear flag pins on their chests. Oversized flags hang from many buildings along U.S. Route 101. A truck in a Palo Alto grocery store parking lot has a flag decal in the back window. The truck also displays a sticker of the cartoon character Calvin urinating. He is wearing a shirt that says "America" and is relieving himself on the word "Terrorism."

What does all of this flag-waving mean? Across the San Francisco Bay area, people are flying the same flag for different reasons. For some, the American flag is a symbol of unity or a show of support. For others, it is a shield. People may be more passionate about displaying the flag since the attacks of September 11, but few say that the meaning of the flag has changed.

In Fremont, California, banners covered with stars and stripes top many of the light posts on Newark Avenue. Red, white, and blue ribbons are tied around trees that grow in the center boulevard strip.

Part of the city is sometimes referred to as Little Kabul because of its large Afghan-American population. A flag flies above the entrance of the Afghan Village restaurant in nearby Newark. Owner Omar Amerie says he put the flag up after September 11 because the situation was scary. "We wanted to protect ourselves. I am a citizen of the United States, and now my flag is on top of my restaurant." So far the restaurant has not received any threats, and Amerie says that the Newark Police Department is also protecting his business. "We don't have any problems," he says.

Something that has hurt Amerie since the attacks is a lack of customers. Afghan Village is still serving 30 percent fewer people nearly three months after September 11, although initially numbers were down 60 percent. "We hope soon to come back to normal," Amerie says.

A few doors down from Afghan Village, Hussaoh Haidarian takes three-foot-long loaves of flatbread out of an oven. He says he put an American flag in the window after the attacks as a show of support for the country. "We stand with the United States," Haidarian says.

Just down the street, the Rogers' small house is getting covered with flags and signs. The large American flag next to the door has been flying for years in support of the military. "We try to honor our veterans," Ron Rogers says. Several of his brothers served in the Vietnam War, and his daughter and son-in-law are now in the Navy. Two months ago, Rogers put up a sign next to his front step displaying the flag and the words "United We Stand." His wife put up a poster with a quote from Deuteronomy. That sign says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you." Rogers says that he and his wife support the government, even though the U.S. retaliations go against their Christian belief system. "I have trouble with killing," Rogers says, "but they came over here and killed us. It's kind of a Catch-22."

On the way out of Fremont on California Route 84, the tollbooths on the Dunbarton Bridge have flag decals on them that say, "God bless America."

Across the Bay on El Camino Real, lightposts in Santa Clara have red, white and blue banners that read, "Santa Clara - An American City." Further down the street in Sunnyvale, John Caruso stands next to his red Indian motorcycle in the parking lot of Honda Peninsula Ducati, a motorcycle dealer. He used to have a small flag in his front window, but replaced it with a larger one after the attacks. He says that the meaning of the American flag has not changed since then. "The flag brings fear into the hearts of cowards," Caruso says, "Because they know we are free."

On University Avenue in Palo Alto, the flag may mean more sales in a slumping economy. Many stores along the street are displaying the flag in their windows, usually printed on a small sheet of paper. The signs are taped on doors and windows, sometimes showing the flag as a shopping bag with the words, "America: Open for Business" printed underneath.

The Rug Gallery hung one of these signs in their window. Phim Missaghian says that a friend brought him the sign from San Francisco, where it is the symbol of a campaign launched by Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr.'s office. "America: Open for Business" encourage people to spend time and money in the city. Missaghian says that the American flag is a symbol of unity, even if some people are racist or intolerant of those with different ethnic backgrounds. Down the street at University Deli, worker Joe Taban feels the same way about the flag. "It means freedom, and everybody together," he says.

Don Switzer of Peninsula Optical Co. has a different view of what the flag symbolizes. "It's a representation of our country, as other flags are to other countries," Switzer says, "It's a territorial kind of thing, since we don't have just one flag for the entire world, which we should." He says he has felt this way about the flag since before the attacks.

North of the Bay area, the Lions Club of Dorris, California flies a 60-foot by 30-foot American flag from a 200-foot flagpole, the tallest in the country. The flag is visible for miles around California-Oregon border town. President Elton Taft says that the meaning of the flag has changed since September 11. "It has brought us closer together," she said, "There just seems to be more patriotism. You see it in the stores, on the news, on the street. People are flying the flag on their cars."

Taft says that more people have shown interest in the group's flag project since the attacks. A man who was recently driving to Oregon saw the flag, and stopped by the Dorris City Hall to make a contribution for its upkeep. The Dorris Lions Club website says that the flag is dedicated "to Veterans of all wars in which American women and men have fought to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today."

For some, the flag shows solidarity with the current administration. In a late night television commercial, Newsmax.com advertises a T-shirt with the American flag on it. Above the flag is a quote from President George W. Bush, "Justice will be done!" Under the flag, it says "Land of the free, home of the brave." The order form for the item on the conservative news organization's website says, "Show your support for America and President Bush."

Another government official once expressed many of the above feelings in a poem. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote "National Symbol," which includes the lines, "The flag is the symbol of our national unity, our national endeavor, our national aspiration. The flag tells of the struggle for independence, of union preserved, of liberty and union one and inseparable, of the sacrifices of brave men and women to whom the ideals and honor of this nation have been dearer than life. It means America first; it means an undivided allegiance. It means America united, strong and efficient, equal to her tasks."

Years later, Bay area residents echo these thoughts as they fly the same flag.