“God Bless America. Beer. Milk. Bread.”That’s on the marquee of a gas station near my house, and it pretty much sums things up for me.This patriotism has degenerated into self-parody, leaving us with not with a sense of actual pride, but of some vague feeling of going with the flow.If everyone else is waving the flag, I suppose I should too.But in spite of this, the Super Bowl, of all things, managed to imbue itself with a sense of restraint and dignity.When that tattered flag, the only one to survive the attacks on the World Trade Center, was hoisted in the air, it said more than a thousand Lee Greenwood songs could: We will survive.And then they took it to the Olympics.And that’s a problem.Sure, the Super Bowl, the most American of all events, is a fine time for us to pat ourselves on the back and admire our ability to stand tall in the face of adversity.It’s okay because the Super Bowl is about us.The Olympics, however, are about the world.And last I checked, almost every country on this planet has been ravaged by terror.Yet America brings out the 9/11 flag.”Hey, look at us. We got attacked, but we will survive. You can count on that.”This isn’t meant to be some radical left-wing rant. It’s about simple decency to other people. India, Ireland, Israel, Iran – just to name a few-are no strangers to domestic turmoil, yet they compete in the Olympics and fly their flags with pride.Before Sept. 11, we thought it would never happen to us.But it did.And we trot out the flag in a place where each nation is supposed to stand as an equal.Yes, we are the host country.But wouldn’t we have brought the 9/11 flag to any other country had we not held the Olympics?I’d imagine so.It’s as if we’re saying, “Hey, other victims of terror, what happened to you guys is awful, but this time is different. Don’t you see? This time it happened to us.”Now we know there is a world beyond our East Coast, and it’s not just a pleasant vacation destination. To recover from the atrocities of Sept. 11, we must realize that America is part of something much larger that itself, and we have to accept the responsibilities that come with it.It’s fine to nurse our wounds here at home.But when it comes time to stand among the rest of the world’s countries, let’s fly a bright, new flag, just as the other countries do.A tattered flag would imply a tattered nation, and that’s not what we are.

Jason Dupuy is a commumications senior.