To the editor:

When I was 5, my older sister used to write my name down on paper and then scribble it out. Oh, that hurt, and I’d scream and shout! So she’d do it again. Desecrate our flag? Scribble it out, and scream and shout we respond. So what is the average maturity level of we Americans? And to what level do we pander to when running for office? Our (Sen.) Marci Francisco spelled it out correctly. Even if it hurts a little, it is still a symbol and we need a moderated response to rise above it and reason it out.

And what a perfect lesson our current president is teaching. Perhaps elected by a “perfect storm” of apathy, meddling and frustration, we are represented by a man in gender only and of indeterminate maturity. Strong enough to affect change through bullying, game playing and his own altered reality, yet too weak to utilize diplomacy, nuance, or patience. Too undisciplined to read and reflect, too vane to accept logic of others with knowledge and experience. So we get “boy talk” and bans for homosexuality, “Me First” instead of “Me Too,” racism instead of tolerance.

Oh, the folly of it all. For all the positive change we asked for with our vote, we collectively have soiled the image of our flag to the rest of the world. And, by golly, isn’t that was the artist was attempting to say?

Alan Miller,

Baldwin City