Much amused outrage out there over Congress — faced with gasoline prices, war issues, security and privacy concerns, and, heck, even an election — instead devoting time to worrying about This Year’s Number One Threat to the United States: American flags that are made in China.
Congress can’t halt the flow of Chinese-made flags, but lawmakers can try to control where they are flown. The House declared Monday that any flag flown on federal property should be made in the U.S.A.
“It’s not a major problem facing the nation,” admitted Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. “But it’s an irritant.”
Chinese-made flags seemed to pop up everywhere after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. People rushed to show their sense of patriotism by buying American flags, and U.S. manufacturers couldn’t keep up with demand. Foreign imports of American flags, worth around $1 million annually at the time, surged to nearly $52 million in the weeks that followed.
Wow! That’s, like, 0.008% of the US trade deficit! Those sly Chinese SOBs … there oughta be a law!
Well … there’s a problem with that solution.
Filner, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, wanted to force the government to buy only American-made flags. “But we were told that this mandatory stuff runs into trade agreements,” the eight-term congressman said. That is because the U.S. has gone to great pains to hammer out trade deals with other countries and can’t impose new limits after the fact.
Oops. Oh, well, at least it’s illegal in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida to sell flags not made in the USA. In Minnesota, that’ll net you 90 days and a $1,000 fine. Let’s hear it for Freedom!
Now, normally that would be just a one-off fun-poke, but, being of a theological bent, it occured to me that this whole brouhaha reminds me of … the Donatist Heresy, one of those old Christian church things from the 4th-5th Centuries. Put briefly, the Donatist Heresy (well, what was eventually Officially Judged to be a heresy) said that sacraments (baptism, communion, marriage, etc.) that were administered by someone unworthy to do so were, in fact, not valid sacraments.
In other words, that deathbed confession you gave to someone you thought was a holy priest but was actually an unrepentant pedophile? Sorry, doesn’t count, no sins forgiven, and the Fiery Furnace for you, my lad!
The church’s ultimate decision on what the Donatists were putting forward was called ex opere operato, which is Latin for “it’s a frelling sacrament, which means God’s mojo overrides the minister being a putz.” In other word, the validity of the sacrament comes from God’s grace, not the “mere conduit” of the minister, and even if the priest giving you communion is an axe murderer in his spare time, it’s still the Holy Eucharist, etc.
So, what does this have to do with goofy Congressional nativist resolutions?
What makes an American flag a (secularly) sacred item? Is it where it was made? Is it whether the cloth (or vinyl) was sourced in the US, and made by US workers, and sold in US stores and carries with it the imprimatur of “Made in the USA”?
Or is it what it represents — the freedoms, the aspirations, the sacrifices, the meaning of what America stands for? Does the actual object interfere with the symbolism? Is the medium the message? Does a flag’s Chinese origin mean it’s actually not an American flag at all, but a Yellow Peril CommSymp Autocratic Tibet-Suppressing Flag of Evil? Does it having been made by Chinese workers being paid $0.10 a day in a sweat shop outside of Shanghai make it less holy than it being made by Mexican immigrants being paid $10.00 a day in a sweat shop outside of Los Angeles?
Or, put another way that will no doubt twist conservatives’ guts into knots — if someone burns an American flag that was made in China, should they be sent to jail under a flag-burning amendment, or congratulated for being a patriotic hero?
And that is enough ideological geekiness for the morning.
(via Les)
While I grant that Filner can be a putz (he also constantly champions for veteran’s rights and benefits- something that’s dear to my heart), I do wonder if I want a to buy a flag that was made under sweat shop conditions. What does that say about our willingness to pay for our freedoms?
Back when this issue first started to get some play, I had to check to see where my flag was made. It’s not that it had to be made in the US (it was), but it’s nice to know that is was made under relatively humane conditions.
I’ll bet those nasty Chinese are spitting on every flag they make! Isn’t our society supposed to evolve and not devolve!!??
If the argument was that Chinese-made flags are manufactured/sewn under poor labor conditions — and the conditions for alternative US-made flags were verified as humane (and not similarly sweat-shoppy) — that would make sense.
But you’re the first person who’s raised that. The gist of most reactions seems to be jingoistic and suppressed irk over another place where the US is satisfying its appetite for endless cheap goods. I wonder how the reaction would differ if it were Taiwan, or Japan, or Mexico, or Canada.
But how can we be sure that flags manufactured in America aren’t being made by Godless pinko draft-dodging hippies?
Clearly we need a process to vet anybody involved in flag-making to ensure that US flags are 100% patriotic!
(I hope this came across as sarcastic. I’d hate to be mistaken for a conservative radio talk show host or something.)
There you go! The solution is to draft the 100% patriotic hot air meisters to make flags for the rest of us under good old fashioned sweat shop conditions! Rush? Anne? Michelle? Bloody Will?