Last weekend was July 4th in America — Independence Day. Parades, fireworks, lots of flags.
There’s even another “flag day” in the U.S., Memorial Day, to honor those who died in the American armed services. It was on that day, May 25, when I took this picture.
I was meeting a friend in Chestertown, Maryland at the time. Memorial Day weekend is a busy day, and I had parked far from the city center to avoid traffic. I was walking through a residential area when I saw this house.
Everything was there — the flag, the handpainted “America” sign topped with the wooden American eagle. Not a rich man’s house, but carefully clean and trimmed. 
“Pathetic, isn’t it?,” said a voice behind me. I turned around to see a man come up silently behind me. He was in his late 60s, with thin grey hair gathered in a ponytail, wire-rimmed glasses, white t-shirt, faded jeans, basketball shoes. He pointed at the house with a sneer.
“The flag!,” he said to my questioning look. “The flag, the eagle! He’s probably a gun nut, anti-gay, a racist. And he can’t even fix his old cracked stairs!”
He looked at me in challenge. “That’s what I think. I don’t know what you think,” he said, and stalked away from me down the street.
He’s not alone in what he thinks. There’s a sizeable group of Americans who dislike, even hate, any display of their flag or any other sign of patriotism. They consider it to be a sign of stupidity and intolerance.
But those who constantly fly the flag, for example, whoever owns this house, see this group as outdated relics of the 1960s — draft dodgers, cowards, even traitors.
Both groups regard each other with contempt. For Americans, everything in sight becomes a bitter political and moral issue, including their flag.
In the Philippines, on July 4th, 1946, the Philippines ceased to be a Commonwealth of the United States, and became the Republic of the Philippines, an independent nation.
On that day, the American flag came down the flagpoles, and the Philippine flag was raised to proclaim final Philippine independence from America.
Today in the Philippines, the Philippine flag flies from all public buildings, and sometimes from bicycles and cars. Nobody argues about it.
For the Filipinos, this is not a moral or political issue; it’s just their national flag.
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Author’s email: john.stevenson299@gmail.com
