Flag a reminder of unity we should seek

Flag Day has come and gone. Our flag flew over the steps by our front window. It is a decades-old cotton flag sewn in strips for the stripes with each five-point, white star individually sewn on with white stitching. It has a gold eagle with its wings half opened at the top of the wooden pole. Its head looks to the right, as if it is guarding our home. It is a comforting sight.

As I think back, I miss the times of more political and neighborhood unity. Times when state and federal political leaders made concerted efforts to cooperate, get along with one another and truly work with the common goal of building a strong, prosperous country whose peoples had good jobs, good health care and a retirement worth living through.

Benjamin Franklin said something like: There has never been a good war or a bad peace. He was correct. For those who believe World War II was an exception, it was not. WWII may have been necessary, but it was not good.

My view of “purpose” for our flag is that we should look at it as a symbol of unity for all citizens of the U.S. to work together to help one another in a common effort to build a stronger government capable of reining in all the excessive corporate welfare and rampant excesses in public spending — especially in a Medicare program which is routinely being ripped off by greedy providers along with seniors who run up unnecessary costs routinely.

James Peterson

Hoffman Estates