Letting My Freak Flag Fly—Again

Oath Keeper Patch: Wordlessly making a statement supporting freedom, individualism, free speech, and anti-establishment views
Letting My Freak Flag Fly—Again













Almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
It was getting kind of long
I could have said it was in my way

But I didn’t and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
I feel like I owe it to someone

I’m not giving in an inch to fear
Cause I promised myself this year
I feel like I owe it to someone

David Crosby (CSN&Y)—Almost Cut My Hair

Many readers won’t remember this, but before liberals became politically correct collectivist cookie-cutter conformists there was a time when they championed freedom, individualism, free speech, and anti-establishment views.  But those days are long gone, and they have morphed into, not just a caricature of themselves, but into some bizarre simulacrum of what they once protested against.

Nowadays it is conservatives who champion freedom, free speech, individualism, and anti-establishment (Big Government) views—and it is the liberals (socialists, statists, progressives, what have you) who are anti-freedom, anti-free speech, anti-individualism, and anti-tolerance.  They have become propagandists and apologists for barbaric savages and their source (jihadists and Islam respectively).  Liberals have become politically correct indoctrinated zombies who mindlessly absorb and obey the official narratives issued by their favorite propaganda outlets.
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dunkin/140315

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/04/18/mark-steyn-the-slow-death-of-free-speech/

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2012/06/17/a-century-of-anti-individualism/

http://downtrend.com/robertgehl/liberals-and-repressive-tolerance/

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/04/24/liberal-media-ignore-radical-islams-links-to-boston-bombings/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/opinion/nicholas-kristof-lessons-from-the-charlie-hebdo-shooting-in-paris.html?_r=0

I was reminded of this the other day when I wore a vest with an “Oath Keeper” patch on its chest (honoring your oath—what a concept).  As I entered a restaurant,  I considered removing the patch and sticking it into a pocket (easily done as it is attached with Velcro).  I briefly entertained the idea because I am by nature a non-confrontational sort, and I am aware of the “bad press” put out by various federal agencies regarding Constitutionalists, patriots, and other “dangerous radicals.”
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/

http://www.oathkeepersgear.net/Patches_c_10.html

http://www.rosieontheright.com/doj-dhs-targets-patriots/

But I didn’t remove the patch, and I thought to myself “My God, I haven’t felt this sort of subliminal low-key social unease since I wore my hair long in the 1960s—before it became, first socially acceptable, and later largely a non-issue.  I might mention that the virulent radical left politics of those days blew right by me, and it wasn’t until many years later that I informed myself about the ideological maneuvering that had gone on.

In any event, I thought of the old “Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young” song ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ and its phrase “letting my freak flag fly.”  It occurred to me that my “Oath Keeper” patch was a new type of “freak flag,” and here I was, fifty years down the road, again wordlessly making a statement supporting freedom, individualism, free speech, and anti-establishment views.



So I am letting my neo “freak flags” fly—sometimes literally, as with the “Don’t Tread On Me” Navy Jack flag on my porch, and for pretty much the same reasons as before.  Except fifty years ago,  I basically did it for myself, and this time I feel like I owe it to someone—someone like future generations of Americans, and the patriots who have fought, bled, and died so “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”




By Jim ONeill

Born June 4, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two.  Worked as a commercial diver in the waters off of Scotland, India, and the United States.  While attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student in 1998 was presented with the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award,” 1st place undergraduate division.  (The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with money she won from successfully suing a national newspaper for libel).  Awarded US Army, US Navy, South African, and Russian jump wings.  Graduate of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, 1970).  Member of Mensa, China Post #1, and lifetime member of the UDT/SEAL Association.

Jim can be reached at: lausdeo.jim@gmail.com