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July 4th musings on symbols, patriotism and identity
Ken Ward
posted Grist
July 3, 2009

Sketches of ideas for the JP Green House exterior all include banners, signs and flags at our request. This reflects our plan to unearth the former corner store which used to be housed in the "Flatiron" triangular building. It’s also a means of advertising our demonstration project and a good fit with our civic purpose, to serve as a community center and climate campaigning “hub” for 350.org.

The kids will enjoy making their own banners as well – indeed their after camp project today is to design a poster for the JP Green House Kid’s $5 Lemonade Stand & Mini-Toboggan Run/Water Slide planned for the weekend. Andrée and I have cautioned that they may not see many takers at that price, but I forget that five dollars isn’t quite the grand sum it was when I was a kid.






As in this early sketch by neighborhood architects Bill MacIlroy and Nancy Shapiro, we plan to have a couple of flag poles above a storefront sign, with banners on each side and a neighborhood bulletin board.

But what flag or flags to fly?


Flag-flying, like bumper-stickers, is an expression of personality and identity, which also in the aggregate, helps define a community. The journey from Jamaica Plain to Roslindale (the JP Green House sits smack on the line between these two Boston neighborhoods) is marked by a decline in rainbow flags and Tibetan prayer banners and an upsurge of shamrocks and American flags.

It has always struck me that the liberal/progressive rejection of the American flag (traceable to anti-Vietnam era protests I assume) has had a subtle but none-the-less powerful impact on US politics. Refusal to show the flag is an eloquent expression of deep ambivalence toward America and a huge boon for conservatives and the Republican Party. It was move of genius for the Obama campaign to employ a logo that evokes the flag, yet subverts the formula by dropping stars and choosing slightly off-true colors.

At this moment in history, facing immediate crises and the looming weight of climate cataclysm, I think it’s time to reclaim our flag as a symbol of national bonds stronger then partisanship, as an affirmation of those parts of American character on which we must rely if we are to face the terrible danger before us, and as an expression of the true, lasting and revolutionary founding principles of the nation.

On this 4th of July, we will proudly fly the American flag at the JP Green House... right next to a bold banner proclaiming “$5 Lemonade.” What could be more American?

July 4th musings on symbols, patriotism and identity
Ken Ward
posted Grist
July 3, 2009

Sketches of ideas for the JP Green House exterior all include banners, signs and flags at our request. This reflects our plan to unearth the former corner store which used to be housed in the "Flatiron" triangular building. It’s also a means of advertising our demonstration project and a good fit with our civic purpose, to serve as a community center and climate campaigning “hub” for 350.org.

The kids will enjoy making their own banners as well – indeed their after camp project today is to design a poster for the JP Green House Kid’s $5 Lemonade Stand & Mini-Toboggan Run/Water Slide planned for the weekend. Andrée and I have cautioned that they may not see many takers at that price, but I forget that five dollars isn’t quite the grand sum it was when I was a kid.






As in this early sketch by neighborhood architects Bill MacIlroy and Nancy Shapiro, we plan to have a couple of flag poles above a storefront sign, with banners on each side and a neighborhood bulletin board.

But what flag or flags to fly?


Flag-flying, like bumper-stickers, is an expression of personality and identity, which also in the aggregate, helps define a community. The journey from Jamaica Plain to Roslindale (the JP Green House sits smack on the line between these two Boston neighborhoods) is marked by a decline in rainbow flags and Tibetan prayer banners and an upsurge of shamrocks and American flags.

It has always struck me that the liberal/progressive rejection of the American flag (traceable to anti-Vietnam era protests I assume) has had a subtle but none-the-less powerful impact on US politics. Refusal to show the flag is an eloquent expression of deep ambivalence toward America and a huge boon for conservatives and the Republican Party. It was move of genius for the Obama campaign to employ a logo that evokes the flag, yet subverts the formula by dropping stars and choosing slightly off-true colors.

At this moment in history, facing immediate crises and the looming weight of climate cataclysm, I think it’s time to reclaim our flag as a symbol of national bonds stronger then partisanship, as an affirmation of those parts of American character on which we must rely if we are to face the terrible danger before us, and as an expression of the true, lasting and revolutionary founding principles of the nation.

On this 4th of July, we will proudly fly the American flag at the JP Green House... right next to a bold banner proclaiming “$5 Lemonade.” What could be more American?