To the editor:

A letter writer stated in the Call recently that our flag is no symbol, but rather a monument.

Clearly the writer has unusual, perhaps unique understandings of the term “symbol” and “monument.”

The U.S. flag represents, depicts and symbolizes the ideals, values and beliefs of the American people in their shared governance.

The Stars and Stripes, as a shorthand emblem, delineates our national history, our national unity, our national purpose and our continued goals.

However, the Stars and Stripes do not constitute a monument.

A monument is a physical memorial — for example, the Gateway Arch, the Stan Musial statue downtown, the St. Louis figure on Art Hill — that has material durability and some actual representation, be it person or specific idea.

The cloth flag waving in the breeze lacks that heavy weight, that physical gravity enshrined in the pillar, the pyramid, the tomb or the shrine.

And unlike Old Glory, a monument looks back into the past at a specific person, event or thing.

Elsewhere in his letter, the writer disparages liberal thought, yet accepts the “teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” One should recognize that the Romans and Judeans in control of Palestine were politically conservative and as such unable to permit the ideas and practices of Jesus of Nazareth.

That is why they crucified Jesus — he was a liberal.

Gerald O’Gorman

Crestwood