Pulling into the parking lot of Moe’s dog run this morning, my husband Hersh and I noticed an SUV parked next to us, flying a huge American flag with 1776 emblazoned on it.

We both remarked out loud with similar derisive tones:  “Trumper!”

Later when we returned and the flag-adorned car was still there we had a change of heart. We noticed there were no Trump bumper stickers or any other identifying marks to confirm their MAGA allegiance.

We had both jumped to that conclusion.

Why couldn’t this car festooned with Stars and Stripes just be a patriotic person?

The automatic assumption that a flag represents the conservative Right and the worst of the Right at that, was disheartening. I resent that they’ve co-opted our flag.

Very quietly and almost wistfully Hersh remarked, “I would fly a flag.”

For a moment I was taken aback a bit hearing this from my husband who as a young man was a bone fide leftie who had hung with the likes of Abbie Hoffman.

And then words I’ve never heard him say before hung in the air. This long ago, once upon a time, child refugee said quietly:

“ I  wouldn’t be here if this country wasn’t free…”

Those words have never felt as prescient.