Memorial Day, Vacation and Ballots #286 By Hank Silverberg I just hung my flag up on the pole in front of my home for Memorial Day. I only fly it on major holidays. But these days, I hear flying an American flag has become political. Apparently, the right-wing is once again claiming that the Stars and Stripes belongs to them, and if you don't fly it you are the bad guys, the "radical liberal commies," or whatever their new made-up term is this month. Well, we all know that is simply not the case. There are 50 stars on the flag representing all 50 states, not the red ones or the blue ones, but all 50. And there are 13 stripes, symbolic of the original 13 colonies that banded together in 1776 to fight a war of independence against imperial Great Britain. ( My Dad's flag flies in front of my house this week ) That flag flew over Iwo Jima in 1945, where my dad was wounded during World War Two. The flag I am flying now was his, and it flies in his honor. The