By Anthony Colarossi | Sentinel
Staff Writer
Posted December 4, 2001
The stares come as soon as Hugo Garay pulls up in
his Ford F-150 pickup.
Some people are disgusted. Some are confused, others amused. A few are elated.
Inevitably, the gruesome display hanging off the back of Garay's truck elicits
some response.
Using life-sized figures, it shows a smiling George W. Bush lynching Osama bin
Laden and holding the terrorist leader's heart on a stake.
Garay fashioned the display in the days after terrorists attacked America on
Sept. 11.
He felt a deep frustration, fueled by his inability to lash back at those
responsible. So he drives the truck around Orlando and calls his blood-strewn
artwork patriotic.
It is, at the least, a statement -- one that raises questions about how the
nation has collectively responded to terror and war:
When does love of country turn into something far less savory than flying a flag
or singing the National Anthem?
And at what point does American patriotism melt into a dangerous form of
nationalism or jingoism?
Some analysts studying America's response to the terrorist attacks say Garay's
traveling exhibit is a symbol of misplaced patriotism and, perhaps, a new brand
of American nationalism that took root in the days after the attacks.
"It's hard not to be drawn into it, especially given the provocation, which
was horrific," said Chip Berlet, co-author of a recently published essay
discussing nationalism in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
"I question his wisdom in doing it, but I don't question his anger,"
said Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a Massachusetts
think-tank that studies bigotry and authoritarianism.
"Still, anger can lead people to do things they later regret."
Berlet broadly defines patriotism as looking at the American flag and reflecting
on the national ideals of liberty and justice.
He defines nationalism as looking at the same flag and welcoming the destruction
of an enemy.
Neighborhood standards
Flags are everywhere in the wake of Sept. 11.
They seem to be on more cars than not on the highways. There are patriotic lapel
pins -- even stars-and-stripes Christmas decorations.
Carolyn Welty picked up a 3-by-5-foot American flag at Flag World in Orlando
on Friday because she wants to show her allegiance to the country -- and keep up
with her neighbors.
"It's to show support to the United States," she said.
"We're practically the only ones on the street who don't have one."
Even displays once considered garish are gaining support in recent weeks.
Winter Park's Walker family, well-known for painting their home red, white and
blue more than 20 years ago, has added to the patriotic displays on their
property.
"We had neighbors that didn't like it in the past," said Theresa
Walker-Brehm. "But since the incident, it's the most popular house on the
block."
Sometimes, though, people feel it's just not enough to fly the colors.
The co-owners of Flag World recall customers early on purchasing the national
flag of Afghanistan -- and knew the flags were bought to be burned.
"That's not patriotism," said store manager Vicki Varney. "That
shows hatred."
Applause and uneasiness
There are other brash statements, such as the one in the bed of Hugo Garay's
pickup.
Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala.,
organization that monitors hate groups, said Garay's work "sounds
positively medieval."
"Historically, this is what happens in situations just as this one,"
Potok said.
"Patriotism in some quarters turns into fury and outright hatred."
But Garay says his work grew from the powerlessness he felt in after the
attacks.
He thought up the violent scene and built it with about $200 worth of supplies
from Home Depot and masks from a Halloween shop, adding healthy splashes of red
paint. Since then, he has roamed Central Florida with the bloody display for
everyone to see.
"It's showing people we're not satisfied," he said. "We're ready
to fight for this country. Mostly everybody, they really like it."
But not everyone.
Daniel Windes, who spotted Garay's morbid vision of justice in downtown Orlando,
said the image caught him by surprise and left him with a "little bit of
uneasiness inside."
"Even though our freedoms allow us to do these things, that's a bit
extreme," Windes said.
"It's asking for trouble."
Alan Lunin, chair of the Central Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union, supports the right be outspoken -- even outrageously so -- but at the
same time he sees it as an emotional response rather than a sincere expression
of patriotism.
But Lunin also questions the message conveyed by American flags now flying from
SUVs or pasted to the sides of minivans.
"I think it's an emotionalism of the moment," Lunin said. "Real
patriots had the flag and were flying them before [Sept. 11]. People who wear
their patriotism on their shoulder, what are they doing other than that?"
Patriotic or just popular?
Some are asking if populism equates to patriotism.
Varney, of Flag World, said she has seen a rush of American flag buyers since
Sept. 11, but wonders where all those people were before the attacks.
"It was like a fad, like when the Cabbage Patch dolls came out,"
Varney said.
"But when you put [an American] flag outside your house, you should feel it
in your heart. It shouldn't be because your neighbor has a flag."
Tommie Quaid, majority owner of Flag World, does not think that expressions of
patriotism, like the recent flag purchases, are shallow reactions to a national
tragedy: "I do think it's a true awareness for every one of us."
But even members of the far political right, like Gordon Baum, talk-show host
and CEO of the Council of Conservative Citizens based in St. Louis, see inherent
dangers in "superficial" flag-waving and the blind support of
government policies.
"It could send a signal to politicians that anything goes," Baum said.
"Patriotism is a good thing, but it doesn't mean we ought to support our
government when it does things that are deleterious," he said.
The flag itself may generate devotion to the country's goals and ideals, said
Berlet, the think-tank analyst. "Or the flag could mean, 'You mess with us
and we'll bomb you into oblivion.'"
"One is the emotion of patriotism," he said. "One is the emotion
of nationalism."
Klan wrapped hatred in flag
More subtle forms of nationalism have crept up in America throughout its
history.
Potok recalled the Ku Klux Klan's extreme xenophobic messages masked as
patriotism in the mid-1920s just as large numbers of Jewish and Catholic
immigrants came to America.
Many immigrants were labeled as having no national allegiance and being
socialists, he said. They were called un-American.
Frequently, Potok said, "Hatred has been masked in a flag of 100 percent
Americanism."
As for the current of climate of patriotism and its potential to turn harmful,
Potok said, "The danger is that we descend into the very type of barbarity
that we oppose."
Garay's exhibit is so graphic it has prompted security at Downtown Disney to ask
Garay, a Peruvian immigrant, to leave the complex.
He also has been on the receiving end of angry hand gestures and hateful words
because of his work.
But Garay is proud of his display showing bin Laden's heart on a stick --
pierced, as he put it, "like a shish kebab."
He says his message is healthy for a nation unaccustomed to foreign attacks on
its soil.
"American people are very peaceful," he said.
"They've never been in this type of situation before. It's showing people
we know how to react."
José Bradley, Garay's brother-in-law, says most people agree with the message
conveyed from the back of the pickup.
"Sure, some people say, 'Oh it's disgusting,' " Bradley said. But
"so is what happened on the 11th."
Anthony Colarossi can be reached at acolarossi@orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-6218.
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