WHERE'S YOUR AMERICAN FLAG PIN?

I am fascinated by this outbreak of American flag pins in men's lapels. What does it mean? How did the movement get started? I suppose it must be a means of identification: as in, "I am an American citizen" as opposed to "I am an Egyptian citizen" and that is helpful to dispel confusion. What happens if you are a man, in a suit, and don't have an American flag pin displayed in the lapel? I have heard, although I did not see this, that a reporter on TV asked a candidate why he was not wearing an American flag pin - ( I heard that this reporter was that sweet-faced George Stephanopolis). The implication must be that if one does not consistently wear a flag pin, one must be a terrorist sympathizer. Is this what George Stephanopolis meant?

The pins come in different sizes and degrees of elegance. I was watching a sports event - I think it was the Masters golf tournament (although I am not sure about this) and the three commentators all had enormous flag pins. They must have been 2 or 3 inches wide. The place where the stars would be was set in something sparkling and shiny, like rhinestones or possibly diamonds. All three men had the same pins, but they were not dressed alike. I wondered if they bought them together or if the network had decreed that flag pins were mandatory.

Wearing ribbons and other insignia to show your backing of a particular cause (usually health related) is not new but the negative connotation of this one (Where is your flagpin?") is new. We are all Americans, so there is nothing identifying those wearing them from the rest of us unless they are "super-Americans." Not since Nazi Germany has the wearing of a badge, or not wearing a badge, meant trouble. Remember how brave it was for the King of Denmark to wear a yellow star to show that he and his country were one,and if the Nazis took any Jews they would have to take him?? That was a lapel pin that meant something.

I am going down to my neighborhood Walgreens, where they have everything. I'm going to buy a lapel pin if they have one and put it somewhere on my person even if I don't have a lapel. Maybe then if I run into George Stephanopolis and his cohorts I'll be O.K.