Wedding Bands and Flags: Symbology and Meaning

It's just some metal mined out of the earth, molded and polished into a circle. It has no inherent meaning. You can throw it down the drain if you want. No need to get all upset if your spouse throws it away.

And that's how some people view our current controversy about respect for the American flag. The flag itself has no inherent value. It's made of threads,dies, and cloth. No need to get all upset if people trample on it or show it no respect.

These statements are true enough so far as the raw materials are concerned. Yet behind the reductionism lies a symbology that deserves recognition and even materialization with all due respect. The previous generation understood the connection of symbol and material. They honored the American flag because it represented something important to them; conversely, they hated the Nazi flag because of its represented meaning.

Our society is a symbological society. We're proud to wear ball caps with our team's symbol. Roll up a few sleeves and you'll see tattoos of all kinds of symbols. We spot our favorite restaurant on a busy highway by its trademark symbol. Graphic designers make big bucks designing logos. Words have been replaced by icons in digital interface. Legislators remove Confederate flags from state buildings, all because symbols have meaning.

Given the prevalence and popularity of symbols in this age, the demeaning of the symbol of American ideals is striking. Behind it is an anti-American movement, and in its wake are those Platonists who argue that the material is nothing.

Those who uphold traditional values do not ask people to do the extraordinary to respect the symbol. There's no movement to force people to buy gilded flags worth hundreds of dollars, or even to require that they fly them on certain days. Really, just a communal moment at national pastimes would be enough to express appreciation for the ideals represented by the symbol. And if certain people can't expend the energy to stand in respect of the symbol, then fine. But don't expect the rest of us to respect them and to say nothing in reply.