No. 21 of 108
July 4, 2025
For most of its existence, the White House has flown standard size U.S. flags. Not anymore. Huge Beautiful Flags (actual dimensions in dispute) are flying this 4th of July on new 88-foot poles (reported by some as 100-foot poles because that’s what the President said), about 18 feet taller than the White House itself. 89 percent of Republicans identify flying the flag with patriotism, compared with 58% of Democrats. The U.S. Flag Code calls for the flag to be flown at half mast for 30 days after the passing of a U.S. President, as it was for former President Carter during the Inauguration, which irritated the to be inaugurated such that the Speaker of the House ordered the flag above the Capitol to be raised during the ceremony and lowered thereafter.
What does it mean to be a citizen of a country? The 4th of July, of all the celebrated days, begs the question. As a mostly indigenous person, my relationship with country is complicated. It was on this day in 2017 that I realized I could no longer be ambivalent. Country, after all, is about place and people. At the heart of indigeneity is relationship and mutual responsibility to place and the people and beings of a place. Complications to be embraced and productively wrestled, ambivalence interrupted. E pluribus unum was the original motto of the country called the United States of America – in many, one. In Many, One. In 1956, the year of my birth, Congress set this aside for a new motto – In God We Trust. E pluribus unum is on the Great Seal. In God We Trust is printed on paper money. On this 4th of July, may we wrestle with what it means to be In Many, One.
No. 21 of 108