Politics on the Roadside

Manistee — Election year in Michigan is no small event, especially given that the state, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is one of the key rust-belt states whose tight race will likely determine the election. Politically inclined Michiganders know this well, and the bravest among them participate in a time-honored American tradition—putting up roadside flags and signs.

Traveling up through the center of the state, I noticed an elaborate roadside display. Never able to beat the “photographer” allegations, I pulled off to take a picture. Usually, I like to just take my photos and get out. They end up more natural that way, and it avoids potential confrontations with an expensive camera in hand.

So when the homeowner spotted me and came barreling out his front door, I was prepared for an awkward scene. I was standing on the man’s front lawn, after all, my car door agape and flashers blinking. I was basically trespassing, and he had a Gadsden flag with its yellow snake and “Don’t Tread On Me” flying, so I half expected to be staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

Much to the contrary, he came out and shook my hand. He was eager to talk to me, to tell me about his flag display and his politics. He simply assumed I was a fellow traveler, sympathetic to his cause, who stopped by to admire his shrine. There was no wariness of a stranger with a camera, no fear or reservation in his mind. He believed in himself so strongly that there was no room for doubt.

The centerpiece of the sign was a black and white POW-MIA display. He said he was a Gulf War veteran who served in the Army during the campaign. His politics changed after the war. The contrast between the resounding victory of American military might and the hidden, subliminal betrayals of service members during the campaign. Soldiers were left reeling from a variety of illnesses caused by the novel biomedical regimens that were supposed to protect them.

Gulf War Syndrome, which nearly half the combat veterans of the campaign suffer from, is a group of illnesses, mainly neurological, that afflicts deployed veterans at a far higher rate than non-deployed veterans of that era. This isn’t just PTSD, it’s the effect of health measures imposed on soldiers with unknown risks.