Opinion: The American Flag Flies For Democracy, Not Against It

"The morning of Jan. 6, my wife and I saw people filling the streets of Washington, D.C., waving American flags as they walked toward the National Mall to protest the outcome of a free and fair election.

This week, when we saw security videos shown at Donald Trump's impeachment trial, we realized many rioters used the same sticks and poles, on which they waved those flags, to smash their way in to the U.S. Capitol, and beat officers who guarded its chambers.

Those stars and stripes are the same flag New York City firefighters raised over the rubble at Ground Zero, and that astronauts unfurled on the soil of the moon. It is the same flag seen just across the river from the U.S. Capitol, in the sculpture of the Iwo Jima memorial, that immortalizes the U.S. Marines who advanced through gunfire up Mount Suribachi in 1945, and raised the flag to inspire Marines to keep going".