The unique blog 4007

A few years ago, the principal of a midsize high school called me about a brewing fight over flags. A handful of students had started hanging large US flags fro…

I have crossed the country enough times to know that the flag shows up where you least expect it. It rides behind a rusted motorcycle somewhere outside Moab, sn…

The flag outside my house snaps in the high plains wind like a sail eager for open water. Some mornings I catch it glowing with that first slant of sun, the red…

A thin pole, a scrap of fabric, the whisper of movement in a hallway draft. You do not forget the first time you carry a flag through a crowd and feel the looks…

A few years ago I sat with a high school junior in the guidance office after a minor dust-up in the lunchroom. He had bowed his head for a quick grace. A nearby…

The fight over public prayer has less to do with piety than with power. Who speaks for the state, who speaks as an individual, and where the line runs between t…

A few summers ago, a small-town library I know took down its lobby flag to make space for a display on local art. The director figured it would be a one-week re…

The bell had barely rung while a sophomore in a hoodie walked into the vice main’s workplace with a small American flag stitched to his backpack strap. He becam…