My wife, Kim, and I were married on January 6, 2001.
You may be thinking, “That date sounds familiar.” If so, then yes. January 6 is also Epiphany on the Christian calendar and George and Martha Washington’s wedding anniversary.
Also, 20 years after our nuptials, it was the date our nation’s Capitol building would be overrun by rioters who had been duped into believing the lie that the 2020 election had been stolen. Rioters felt their only recourse was to take up arms and attack the Capitol building, the symbolic seat of our democratic republic.
This attack was a desperate attempt to overturn the results of the election in favor of Donald Trump–an authoritarian populist, fascist and the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.
So, on our 20th wedding anniversary, a day soaked in meaning for my family, a surreal and profoundly troubling event played out on live television. And every year since, the insurrection and attempted coup hang over our special day like a cloud of angst and dissipating tear gas.
Almost as surreal as the Capitol riot is, we have developed a sense of collective amnesia regarding January 6th.
Half the country would like to whitewash that dark bit of history, pardon those who participated in it, and shield those who orchestrated the events from accountability. This is surreal and devastatingly disappointing for a country founded on the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power.
I was disappointed, yet not surprised, to see many folks carrying Revolutionary War flags, Confederate flags, Christian flags, “Thin Blue Line” flags, “Appeal to Heaven” flags, and upside-down American flags among a sea of “Make America Great Again” and Trump 2020 flags.
Many of these historic flags were used in conflicts during the American Revolution and by the Confederate Army during the first insurrection. I was troubled that the mob appropriated a revolutionary and secessionist spirit.
Flags that had been used by young revolutionaries who stood against authoritarianism were being carried and transformed by those wanting to install their own authoritarian “strongman.”
The Confederate flags were particularly unsettling. This flag was not only carried by an army fighting to uphold a state’s right to enslave other humans. It has also been used as a symbol of white terror in lynch mobs and countless other acts of white supremacy since the Civil War. And here it was being carried through the halls of our nation’s Capitol for the first time.
Had the South risen again?
The United States flag, a symbol of national unity and patriotism, was flown upside-down as a symbol of dire distress. One was even used to bludgeon a police officer on the steps of the Capitol building.
Even the “Thin Blue Line” version of the American flag, designed to show support for law enforcement, was used as a weapon against officers enforcing the law.
Christian flags bearing the symbols of Jesus–a man who perfectly personified nonviolence in the face of an oppressive occupying government, to the point of death–were proudly flown over prayers of those who believed this was a Jericho march.
Everywhere you looked, a different kind of savior was being idolized.
After Trump himself directed the mob towards the Capitol, telling them to “fight like hell” to save their country, he retreated to the White House, where he watched the chaos unfold on TV. There, he ate a cheeseburger and ignored calls from even his most loyal sycophants in Congress to call off his disciples and end the violence.
Seeing all those flags flying on January 6th left me rattled in disbelief with many questions.
Did these people understand what they were doing?
How did our nation sink to this level of violence?
Was there a fire sale on flags on the National Mall?
These thoughts brought to mind lyrics from Johnny Cash’s classic jug band country song, “Sold Out of Flagpoles”:
“‘Liberty,’ said Lonnie, ‘E Pluribus Unum, in God we trust, and I’m sold out of flagpoles.’ … ‘Winners keep on winnin’. Even losers win sometimes, and I’m sold out of flagpoles.’”
The song instantly became my soundtrack for the spectacle.
The Man In Black had what some folks might consider a complicated view of America. He stood with the underdogs of society, the downtrodden, the incarcerated, the poor, the mistreated and the Native American.
I couldn’t help but wonder how he would have written about these events. I can only imagine the songs he could have written for these troubled times would have branded him “canceled” for being too “woke” by MAGA extremists.
Even without a new Cash song, “Sold Out of Flagpoles” captures the kind of conversation we are having as a nation in the wake of January 6th. Many are questioning these events, while others seem to say, “Everything’s normal, and I’m sold out of flagpoles.”
I created a music video that plays in my imagination whenever I see images from the January 6th Capitol Riot. It was my way of processing these surreal events.
Our democratic republic was nearly stolen on live television by a reality TV star.
Stolen from past generations who fought against the tyranny and oppression of authoritarian rulers.
Stolen from another past generation who fought against another group of insurrectionists hell-bent on tearing this country in two. Their goal was to preserve an economy fueled by the inhumane labor of enslaved people and undergirded by an ideology of hate and white supremacy.
For the sake of future generations, may we recognize the crossroads we are at as a country and continue striving toward the aspirations of our founding documents. May we continue building the “more perfect Union” aspired to in our Constitution, to “establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
May no mob armed with co-opted flagpoles ever prevail against them.
Matthew Cleveland is a nonprofit professional who lives in Searcy, Arkansas with his wife and their three children
