Heavy Flag

There was a time when the flag felt lighter.

Not because the country was perfect

But because the story felt clearer.

We were told to believe in freedom.

We were told to believe in hard work.

We were told that if we did our part

The country would do its part too.

Even in neighborhoods that struggled

We stood for parades.

We watched fireworks.

We honored the fallen.

We believed in the idea

Even when the reality was slow to arrive.

But something shifted.

Patriotism became a weapon.

A code word for loyalty without question.

A symbol claimed by one side

While the rest of us were told we must not love this country

If we dared to criticize how it moves.

But here in the Lab, we know better.

Love does not ignore.

Love studies.

Love remembers.

Love builds.

And still

The flag feels heavier now.

Because learning more means carrying more.

It means knowing that the country structures struggle.

That it builds systems that create debt on purpose.

That people are turned into products

And labor is priced in ways that never include dignity.

We learn that the nation thrives on financial expansion

That the Gross Domestic Product

Our sacred economic measurement

Is lifted by the hands of people who are not always lifted with it.

We ask ourselves

Would people work harder if they knew their job was to protect the nation’s status?

To keep the country at the top of the global chain?

Maybe.

But only if they believed the reward would come back to them.

Because people do not mind hard work.

People mind being used.

They mind working harder while earning less.

They mind watching their labor raise the flag

While their communities remain overlooked.

The United States has the largest GDP in the world.

It remains the global superpower.

Its economy touches every corner of the planet.

Its dollar is trusted even when its people are not.

But being a superpower is a trade.

It trades clarity for secrecy.

It trades labor for leverage.

It trades patriotism for productivity

And hopes the people will never know the difference.

But we do.

We know that patriotism should not be handed out by party.

We know that love for country is not proven by silence.

We know that understanding how the country works

Should not make us love it less

But should push us to hold it to more.

We heard all the promises.

As young people, we were told to believe in the future.

That adulthood would be better.

That hard work would be enough.

That America would work for us if we stayed focused and stayed out of trouble.

But no one told us what their votes meant.

No one talked to us about policy.

No one explained the consequences.

They just voted quietly

Mostly in federal elections

Then hoped for the best.

We grew up in that silence.

But we are no longer in the dark.

We have seen the data.

We have read the bills.

We have watched injustice get defended

And systems protect themselves in plain sight.

We know that decisions have weight

And silence is not protection

It is permission.

So we cannot just hand this same silence to our children.

We cannot ask them to believe in a country

While hiding how the country actually works.

We cannot pretend that freedom is inherited

If it is not protected

If it is not taught

If it is not held accountable.

That is why we do this work.

Not to shame our elders

But to break the cycle of silence.

To teach our young people how power works

Before power teaches them what it costs.

Because a flag handed down without truth

Is just cloth.

But a flag passed with clarity

With history

With accountability

Becomes legacy.

And legacy is what we are here to build.