American Flag, Barbed Wire

In Albums: Cleveland favorites security

An American flag, flying behind a chain-linked fence with barbed wire, and light clouds against a blue sky

Feb 9th, 2004, by Alex Zorach

I did not think much of this photo when I took it, but it has since become one of my favorite photos. A complete accident, there is no deep symbolic intention in the reality of this photo: it's just a business's fenced-off lot, and the business is flying an American flag. But I find the composition of this photo makes it oddly symbolic.

This photo conjures up images in my head of the way, at times, American democracy is held captive by all sorts of forces...not the least of which is the obssesive-compulsive desire to keep others out and hold onto our possessions, which I find is powerfully symbolized by the fence and barbed wire.

I used this photo in my blog post A Definition of Extremism: Correctly Identifying and Gracefully Handling Extremist Views, as I feel that extremism is one thing that can hold democracy captive.