Nation more than anthem, flag

Recent letters have condemned singers who personalize their renditions of the national anthem. The anthem does strike a deep chord in every American’s heart. However, our nation is not an anthem. Our nation is not a flag.

Our nation is like-minded people gathered in a union for mutual benefit. This is stated clearly in the preamble to the Constitution: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Please honor this founding concept, that the nation is a union to serve the people. Honor and respect your fellow citizens, however they choose to honor the anthem. Don’t raise above real people, to the level of sacred, the abstract symbols of anthems, flags or pledges.

If the preamble isn’t persuasive enough, maybe the first two of the Ten Commandments can clarify the limits to sanctification: Worship only God. Don’t create sacred images.

Daniel Peterson

Coeur d’Alene