There was no military parade in my small town today, just forlorn government flags on government parking meters on the government street through downtown. I thought about the progress we’ve made since the dark nationalistic days after 911, complete with that order given to Heaven: “God, bless America” to flag decals and magnets and little cloths flying from both sides of cars. A few months after the Pentagon failed to protect even its own headquarters, I was in Atlanta and saw a young man in a pickup truck. He had rigged the bed to hold a giant flagpole and government flag. I remember wondering: what exactly does that flapping thing do to his gasoline mileage, and what sort of a nation stimulated such insanity. ? Being a non-believer in the land of crazed patriotism was an interesting experience. But the patriotism has faded, and thank goodness.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.