Last year my city councilmember stopped me as he strolled by.
“Are you Mexican?” he asked.
“Nope, I’m Scots-Irish,” I replied. “But… I’m doing a lot of work there these days.”
The councilmember’s question was not unprompted. I had been flying the flag of Mexico outside my house for six months. He assumed it was a statement.
In fact, I’m a serial flier of flags on the stand mounted next to my front door in the San Gabriel Valley. Over the years, I’ve learned how quickly people make inaccurate assumptions about flags and their meanings.
So, I’ve felt unexpected sympathy for U.S. Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito, who has been criticized for flying an upside-down American flag outside his residence, and a Christian nationalist “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his beach house.
Alito’s critics say the flags demonstrate bias — an affinity with Trump supporters who deny the 2020 elections results and support the Jan. 6 insurrection — that violates judicial ethics. They believe he should recuse himself from Trump-related cases. Alito has blamed his wife for putting up the flags.
For the record, I’m no fan of Alito. He has cruelly and unreasonably stripped rights from Americans, and shown scorn and bad faith toward California. His integrity is questionable, given his naked partisanship and the favors he’s accepted from rich people, including Eureka billionaire Rob Arkley.
In short, Alito’s scandalous, embarrassing presence on the Supreme Court makes me want to fly my own American flag upside down — traditionally a signal of dire distress for the nation. But I’m not sure the flags on his houses should be held against him.
Because I certainly wouldn’t want my flag choices held against me. I don’t think my flag choices are endorsements, or mean that I can’t be an impartial journalist. Still, I’m a citizen first and a reporter second. I retain the right to self-expression.
I own dozens of cheap flags. Some are sports-related — flags for the Lakers, Dodgers and my wife’s Green Bay Packers go up in the playoffs. But most of the flags I fly are of countries with which I have no ties of heritage or culture.
I’ve spent 16 years running an annual, traveling global democracy forum, and I often fly the flag of the country that will host us next.
I had Mexico’s flag up in advance of our 2023 Mexico City forum. Before that, I flew the Swiss flag, which prompted passersby to ask if I was a doctor or worked for the International Red Cross. Last week, after the completion of our forum in Bucharest, I took down my Romanian flag, and raised the blue-and-black of Botswana (host of the 2025 forum).
I have practical reasons for flying these flags. My house is small. If I did early morning Zoom calls with forum hosts around the world, I’d wake up my entire family. Instead, I do the calls on the porch, with the flag of whomever I’m speaking with flapping behind me.
Sometimes my flags get personal, even political. I communicate my heritage with the flags of Ireland or Scotland. When times are tough in California, I fly the state flag in solidarity. I’ve mounted the flag of Hong Kong — where I lived as a child — to protest China’s violence there.
Flags can have dangerous power, especially at public sites. Just look at the pitched fights about the Pride or Confederate flags. It is no coincidence that armies carry flags into battle.
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But flags are also nonviolent forms of expression that inspire conversations. Neighborhood kids ask me about the countries my flags represent. I tell them about Mexico’s democratic progress, Switzerland’s 500 years of peace, or Romania’s recovery from communist dictatorship.
Flags don’t have to represent division. Different flags, flown by different neighbors, symbolize pluralism — our commitment to let people choose their loyalties.
As Flag Day approaches, this eccentric flag lover urges you to allow everyone — even terrible judges — to fly whatever flags we wish.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California and Democracy Local columns for Zócalo Public Square.
