Column: Flags serve as part of cultural identity The past month or so seems jam-packed with days devoted to patriotic fervor. Bastille Day has just passed us and the Fourth was not too long before that. Perhaps there are other periods as dense with nationalistic celebration but, from my Western-centric point of view, these particular holidays strike me as unique both in their importance and in their being popularly memorable. I confess that, despite the drudgery of many years of French lessons in school and subsequently in college, I have never visited France, nor any Francophone country for that matter. I have, however, visited the United States — indeed I have lived here now for some six years — and have experienced the Fourth, and the unique brand of American patriotism, on many occasions.

I know how this looks like it's shaping up. Non-American goes on anti-American rant — film at eleven. And you're probably right to be skeptical about the fair-mindedness of non-Americans talking about America; the way Americans celebrate the Fourth does strike many Europeans, and possibly the residents of other continents too, as strangely prideful. I remember when I first arrived in the United States, driving from the airport, I was struck by the sheer number of flags on display on private residences. Things are not like this in the UK — well, sort of, but more on that in a moment. But we all know how people respond to things that are different, don't we?

However, I think, or, at least, like to think that the reaction I had was more than simply one of culture shock and that I can actually explain why things seemed odd to me.

The purpose of a flag, to me, had always been to demarcate one location or affiliation from another but this could not be the case here since all of these suburban houses were unambiguously on American soil. Proudly displaying the flag on the day that marks the independence of the United States, and thus the birth of the flag (in some form), from the British Empire made sense to me but draping it from one's house year-round did not.

Recently an American friend of mine proposed, to complicate this thought of mine, that perhaps the rationale for the publicity the flag typically receives in day-to-day American life is that the flag is simply beautiful on its face, rather than richly symbolic of a deeper patriotism. This may indeed be true and he offered up some truly novel anecdotal evidence relating the displaying of U.S. state flags and their apparent or perceived attractiveness but I'm not completely persuaded.

Despite my apparent protestations, the flag displays are eerily familiar to how things are in my neck of the woods: Northern Ireland. As you may know, Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the UK, has been the site of ethnic conflict between Protestants identifying with Britain and Catholics identifying with the Republic of Ireland. As a result of this identity conflict: some Protestants fly Union flags (don't call it a Union Jack unless it's aboard a ship, thank you very much) in their neighborhoods and some Catholics fly the Irish Tricolor in theirs. They even paint the curbs that line their streets the respective colors to mark out territory. This is exactly what a flag is for.

And yet, not. Though there are debates to be had about the genealogy and legitimacy of Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom, it is currently recognized unilaterally as such. Thus flying flags doesn't mark out truly different territory, it symbolizes something else: specifically, an identification with one community and an opposition, of sorts, to another. It implies inter-community hostility. It stresses disunity rather than unity. It is provocatively simplistic. I worry that flag flying in the United States communicates an analogous message.

Since there is no dispute as to what territory these American flags that I encountered are flying in, the message must be more subtle. I fear that flying the flag is a cipher for the fervency of unquestioning, past-vaunting patriotism while not flying it is a cipher for its absence. It's a shame that the flag that celebrates one of democracy's great steps forward (for all its flaws) can become a symbol of division with a nation as great as the United States.

While it must be admitted that, in many respects, the problems of the United States do not compare to ours in Northern Ireland, there seems to be a congruency here. In this spate of days of patriotism, Northern Ireland is not to be left out. The 12th of July is celebrated by Northern Irish Protestants as the day in 1690 when the "Protestant" forces of King William III defeated the "Catholic" forces of the deposed King James II at the Battle of the Boyne and thus secured the foothold of Protestantism in the British Isles. This is a holiday with all the wrong connotations.

Yet, like so many of its ilk, it can easily be salvaged from the pit of sectarianism. While religion was a shameful motivating factor in the conflict, so too was political philosophy. The Glorious Revolution sought to impose limits on the power of the monarchy, and succeeded, in so small measure, in doing so. This is how this holiday should be remembered, in context, and in moderation, as a step forward for democracy — something we can all celebrate.

The past should never be treated as more important than the present, no matter how remarkable. It should be used to stress our common heritage, not our incidental historic differences. It should bind us together rather than bind us to itself.