Two new American flagpoles were installed at the White House June 18 at a ceremony attended by President Donald Trump and the national media. What should have been an important expression of what our flag represents turned into a reminder that our relationship with the American flag is complicated.

Trump should be commended for whatever role he played in those additions to the White House lawn. Now more than ever, we need to remember all of the freedoms that have been ensured under the American flag.

But at the same ceremony, Trump resorted to his old habit of bashing the media for asking him questions he refuses to answer, critical questions about public policy the press has a right to ask, looking for answers the public has a right to know.

For a guy who has been photographed literally wrapping himself in the American flag, it is not clear he understands that the flag represents all of our American freedoms — even those with which he may disagree or find inconvenient.

James Madison called freedom of the press “one of the great bulwarks of liberty,” which he said should be “inviolable.” That principle made it into the First Amendment, protecting the free flow of information to the public. The flag stands for that.

The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — whom Trump called a “great” judge, promising to appoint more judges just like him — understood that the American flag does not belong to any single cause or individual or set of beliefs.

Scalia voted with the majority on the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled in 1989 that even flag burning was a form of protected speech. Flag burning is abhorrent — especially to families like ours that treasure an American flag folded into a tight triangle at the military funeral of a loved one. But Scalia used flag burning as an example of how freedom comes first.

“If it were up to me, I would put in jail every … weirdo who burns the American flag. But I am not king,” he said at the time.

Justice William Brennan, whose majority opinion Scalia joined, wrote, “We are aware that desecration of the flag is deeply offensive to many.” But, he added, “Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered, and worth revering.”

The American flag does not belong to any group more than any other, not to any political movement or party. It is not a symbol of that brand of nationalism that sees the nation as a struggle between “us” and “them,” although it has been used by those who believe there are “others” who are “lesser.”

It is neither the flag of those who are advocating for social change nor of those who are resisting social change because it is the flag of both. It is actually the flag of the great majority in the middle.

And while it has sometimes been used by those who would deny us our freedoms, it is an even stronger symbol of all those freedoms that are a part of the American promise.

If you have been shying away from the American flag because it seems to have been claimed by people with different values and beliefs, it is time to reclaim it. Fly the flag. It belongs to all of us.

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