FLAG DAY, PLUS...

Today is Flag Day, perhaps not as much in the public eye as the Fourth of July, but still an important day for what it represents.  The flag is a symbol for what our country stands for, for both what were are and what we hope to be.  It is a symbol of what American had died for for over 250 years.  What it should not be is a prop used to gin up yahoos and so-called patriots to serve a devious and meretricious political purpose; when a flag is perverted in that manner it is merely a piece of cloth, nothing more.

Flag Day is also the birthday of our current president, a conman and grifter who likes nothing more than to use the flag for his own political purposes.  Here is a man who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, and purported pedophile who is actively working to destroy the constitution and our protections under law for his own profit and self-aggrandizement, a man who is actively working against the betterment of most of the people who voted for him, whose inflated narcissism makes him incapable of seeing beyond his own distorted image in the mirror, who seemingly brandishes his dementia as a shield, and who callously approves the slaughter of innocents.  (In case you are late to the party, yeah, I do not care for Uncle Cankles one bit.)  Trump has illegally trashed one of the enduring symbols of this country -- the White House -- with his destruction of the East Wing to build his ego-inflated ballroom.  He has used the White House to denigrate his perceived enemies, and to festoon the  building with the tackiest of gilt.  His unnecessary redo of the Reflecting Pool is  now an algae-filled disaster that went at least 800% over budget to line the pockets of his cronies.  His proposal for a Triumphant Arch is  not lonely unneeded and tacky, but will desecrate those who lie in Arlington National Cemetery'

And now we have an Octagon on the South Lawn.

To celebrate his 80th birthday (and ostensibly to celebrate America's 250th), he will hosting a UFC mixed martial arts cage fight at the White House today.  This, of course, is a private, for profit enterprise that will in part be paid by taxpayers, although, again, Trump's cronies will profit.  Oh, dear Mother of God...  

Nothing says America more than the UFC, unless it may be the Grand Prix that Trump is planning to race through the streets of D.C. later this year for the 250th.

Today is also another scheduled No King's Day to be held throughout the country wherever there is not a wrestling mat.

Today is also the birthday of my father-in-law, Harold Keane, a proud veteran and Bronze Star recipient, who would be more than upset at what the "sonofabitch" Trump was doing.  Harold was a first generation Irishman; his father and two uncles left Ireland in the  middle of the night, one going to Canada, one to Australia, and Harold's father to America -- why they suddenly left the Auld Sod is unclear and the subject of much family speculation.  Harold's father settled in Massachusetts, began working in the shoe industry, married and had eight children that any man would be proud of.  After World War II, Harold married and went to Georgia Tech, living in a trailer, raising tow children, and working his way through to become an engineer.  Harold was a smart, kindly, and feisty man with a great sense of humor, and -- true to his County Cork roots --built like a fire plug.  When he angered, it was with a purpose, one often related to his youth in "No Irish Need Apply" America.  He loved his family and he loved his country and he loved the water.  He doted on his grandkids and they truly loved and respected him.  For over two decades now, we have celebrated his memory with an ice cream feast on his birthday -- he loved to make a full meal on Kimball's banana splits when he moved back to Massachusetts in the mid-Sixties.

So later today, we are going to Fanny Lou's in Pensacola -- which serves the very best homemade ice cream in the area -- to raise a spoon in honor of the Maker of the Feast.  We will be ignoring the UFC and "that sonofabitch Trump" because Harold, and his legacy, is now, and always will be far, more important to the America we love.