When I travel to America (the moment I leave New York City), I see the American flag everywhere. I have been thinking over the reason for that in recent years. Why do people fly this flag? It’s because it represents OUR country. 

I know, I know… the rainbow flag represents Brooklyn, but the symbol that unites our entire country, whether you like it or not, is the American flag. I also feel the confederate flag should NEVER be allowed to see the light of day. It should be outlawed. That flag never represented America, and never will. The south won’t rise again because it’s part of the rest of this country. 

I give my kids a deep history lesson at least once a month.  We also watch Black-ish every week and discuss the topics they bring up in the show. We talk about current events and I give them tidbits of American history along the way. In the end I remind them that they are as American as any other citizen and will reap the benefits of living in a society that allows us to do whatever we want in 2019. Anything we want!!!! 

There will be roadblocks and obstacles, but the only thing stopping them from this point forward is them. 

The older I get, the more I realized that this is MY country too. When I see America, I am amazed at how beautiful it is. The history of this country is horrific, as you can read from these stories, but those that laid down their lives for me to be able to do what I do, deserve praise and admiration. 

I am an American. My ancestors built this country too. We should take pride in the fact that without descendants of enslaved Africans, we wouldn’t have the country we have today. 

Let’s keep making this a more perfect union. 

I love this series of essays in The NY Times Magazine – “The 1619 Project.”

It’s great.

“Like most young people, I thought I understood so much, when in fact I understood so little. My father knew exactly what he was doing when he raised that flag. He knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest and most powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the United States simply would not exist without us.”

 

Read the essay “America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One” here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share