Like many places in the USA, the village of Montgomery NY, where I’m playing a show tonight, is bedecked with American flags. Union Street, the main road into town, has the Stars and Stripes flying from every lamppost for over a mile. They’re flown to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this coming weekend. The permanent brackets that hold the flags at a 60 degree angle are utilised every 4th of July and on other annual flag days. In winter they hold hold seasonal displays. The brackets are placed and maintained by the local council with the consent of Montgomery’s citizenry.
Compare these displays with those mounted last summer by Raise the Colours, whose operatives, under cover of darkness and masked to prevent identification, cable-tied the English flag to lampposts along roads in urban areas. Why did they feel it necessary to operate in such a surreptitious manner? What message were they sending that it needed to be made anonymously?
The obvious difference between the display of national flags in Montgomery and those back home is that the former is done with the consent of the community. Although they may not experience pride on seeing their national flag, US citizens understand the context in which they are displayed. However, the overnight appearance of English flags happened without consent or context. In such circumstances, the displaying of flags can be contentious, menacing even.
Though Raise the Colours have strenuously denied that their campaign is anti-immigrant, such claims have been undermined by comments made by campaign leader Ryan Bridge last week. Having been ordered by law not to encourage others to fly flags from public infrastructure or impede staff from taking them down, he accused those who took him to court of hating their country and believing in open borders. In a moment of anger, the mask slips and we see that his flag-raising campaign is motivated by intolerance rather than pride.
The message they seek to send by cable-tying the flag of St George to every lamppost along a stretch of road is that they will not tolerate the presence of anyone different from them.
The Pride flag sends the opposite message. It’s rainbow colours have been visible wherever we’ve travelled during Pride month - even from the porches of houses in Montgomery. But it was seeing it in a grocery store in Pennsylvania that made me think of its meaning beyond this month of celebration. By prominently displaying the rainbow flag, the store was sending a message not just to the LGBTQ+ community, but to people of colour, of diverse ethnicities, of different faiths and none that they can expect to be treated fairly by the staff, without fear of discrimination.
At a time when politicians, trillionaires and even some who claim to be Christians are claiming that empathy is toxic, the rainbow flag says all are welcome here.
It was a thought that stayed with me all the way to Red Bank NJ, where, while wandering around the town waiting for soundcheck to start, I began composing a song reflecting the inclusivity symbolised by the Pride flag, to the tune of “The Star Spangled Banner”.
The first lines came easy: Oh say can you see, by the rainbow’s bright stripes. But how to end the song? The last lines of “The Star Spangled Banner” are so evocative - “the land of the free and the home of the brave” - I needed something punchy. It wasn’t hard to replace the last three syllables of the first part with “empathy” but what kind of home does the song seek to evince?
At soundcheck it came to me: “the home of the safe”. It may sound wimpy to the likes of Pete Hegseth, but isn’t feeling safe the dominant aspiration of humanity? Isn’t that what we seek by banding together in relationships, families and communities? Few in the US buy guns in order to kill people - their intention when bringing a lethal weapon into their home is to feel safe.
The rainbow flag signifies that you are in a safe space where consent is sought, where differences are tolerated and empathy is extended to all.
Our American cousins will doubtless here the tune of “The Star Spangled Banner” played over the coming days, so I humbly offer an alternative lyric for use by those who believe that liberty requires tolerance in order that a land should be truly free.
THE RAINBOW-STRIPED BANNER
Oh say can you see
By the rainbow’s bright stripes
The land prophesied
By Doctor King’s dreaming
Where we once fought a war
To make free the enslaved
Where women can vote
And marriage is equal
And the cynics may glare
At our flag flying there
But the message it sends
Is to she, he and them
Oh say does that rainbow-striped
Banner yet wave
O’er a land of empathy -
And the home of the safe
Video filmed by Vaughn Martinian at The Vogel, Red Bank NJ 28 June 2026
