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I The people Elizabeth Goldhagen

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4 Table of Contents A Viewpoint 6 New York NY 8 Washington D C 42 Detroit MI 70 Las Vegas NV 124 Los Angeles CA 142

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6 A Viewpoint

7 The American Flag unifies the population under stars and stripes a common thread for citizens to share With 324 7 million people over 3 797 million square miles there are many perspectives and opinions In my travels I ve noticed that people around the United States often use The American Flag to justify their cause whatever that cause may be Opposing teams forces parties and individuals all pledge allegiance to the same piece of cloth and often define The Flag as their own Throughout this book you ll find comments and photos from a selection of the people I ve met and a glimpse of the places I found them across New York City Washington D C Detroit Las Vegas and Los Angeles Hope you enjoy America will never be destroyed from the outside If we falter and lose our freedoms it will be because we destroyed ourselves Abraham Lincoln

8 New York City New York NY The Big Apple The Capital of the World The City that Never Sleeps The Empire City The Melting Pot and so many more names can describe the culturally and ethnically diverse hustling and bustling economic powerhouse known as New York City Most New Yorkers pride themselves in their liberal views and unfazed confidence Tourists flood the streets in and around famed landmarks including The Empire State Building Times Square and Rockefeller Center New York is a wide open and welcoming city to anyone and everyone The glamour of it all New York America Charlie Chaplin

9 Rockefeller Center

10 New York NY

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12 What does The American Flag mean to you I think for me it s freedom I m here from immigrant parents and for me it s like I feel so fortunate to be here and as women we re empowered so we have a voice New York NY

13 East Village

14 New York NY

15 Women s March NYC

16 New York NY

17 Women s March NYC

18 What does The American Flag mean to you Honestly nothing right now My view can change I don t want to stand for something that represents something corrupt New York NY

19 Upper East Side

20 America lets us do what we want and in New York I can be a free lady I think it s like being confident and standing tall in the city I can do anything I want to do New York NY

21 Times Square

22 Right now in this country Trump is overriding the thoughts of masses This needs to stop Women and all humans need to speak in favor of justice New York NY

23 Women s March NYC

24 New York NY

25 Women s March NYC

26 New York NY

27 East Village

28 Life s too short to talk about politics We all need to love but in the meantime I guess just resist In this city it s too hard to avoid the news New York NY

29 Bleecker Street and Lafayette

30 New York NY

31 Women s March NYC

32 New York NY

33 Women s March NYC

34 New York NY

35 Upper East Side

36 The flag is representative of life love for the country God pride freedom Being at the march is the only way I can like visibly see hope if that s a thing now that Trump is president New York NY

37 Women s March NYC

38 New York NY

39 Times Square Rockefeller Center

40 New York NY

41 Women s March NYC

42 Washington D C Washington D C The nation s capital Washington D C is a proud and patriotic city painted in red white and blue The Washington Monument stands tall above the buildings below Amongst the common pedestrians tourists and city citizens live congressmen and women justices and Commander in Chief Mr President Donald J Trump a name possibly no U S citizen could have ever imagined following that honorific To some Washington is the embodiment of corruption and to others a triumph of the American experiment We will make America strong again We will make America proud again We will make America safe again And we will make America great again Donald J Trump

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44 The flag helps to show rememberance for the fallen soldiers and their caskets are also draped with an American Flag It s cool for us to also wear The American Flag around our neck as a part of our uniform showing that we are a part of The American Country Washington D C I am proud to wear this entire uniform even just working here in the cemetery you know to give my service back to all the soldiers that have fought for me and that have feared for all of us and yeah it really gets me emotional as well We have an average of 25 to 30 funerals a day and it just crushes my heart To think that everyone in this cemetery has fought for us in some way it really just moves me

45 Arlington National Cemetery

46 The American Flag represents everything that this country was founded for you know it was founded on specific ideas of freedom and liberty and justice for all and I feel that it does represent that Whether or not the United States lives up to that is something that the country has been working on since the begining and should continuously work on every day every night every year every administration Washington D C

47 MLK Jr Memorial

48 At Arlington National Cemetery husband and wife lay together sharing the same gravestone Harold s inscription in on the west side of the stone where he is buried and Arlene is on the east side of that same stone beneath her inscription Washington D C

49 Arlington National Cemetery Section 60

50 Washington D C

51 Presidential Inaugural Parade Rehearsal Soldiers and Motorcade

52 To me America is pure greatness Washington D C

53 The Capitol

54 Washington D C

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56 The Flag represents 21st century Sodom and Gomorrah Over the 65 years I ve lived here the country has moved from the right all the way to the left Washington D C

57 MLK Jr Memorial

58 Washington D C

59 Arlington National Cemetery

60 I think of a lot of things when I think of The Flag Some good things some bad things Fanny Aizenberg Holocaust Survivor United States Immigrant Washington D C

61 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

62 Washington D C

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64 Washington D C

65 Week of Trump Pence Inauguration

66 I fight for this country because I really care I think Trump is gonna do good things for our forces We re strong but we could be stronger Washington D C

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68 Washington D C

69 2 Months After Election Day

70 Detroit Once a motor manufacturing powerhouse now a dilapidated tired and hopeful city awaiting its renaissance How could one of America s greatest metropolises become America s failure and then in a pushing effort America s greatest comeback city Detroit known for its car manufacturing and Motown sound significant for its role in elevating African American artists in the music industry has run out The auto industry dispersed to the four corners of the globe by global competition while its streets have been stricken by riots crime and poverty In 2013 Detroit became the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history Amazingly hope remains with the people who stayed after the despairing fled To many outsiders Detroit seems to suffer in its urban decay While peaking at almost 2 000 000 people in the 1950 s Detroit s population is now about 700 000 the size it was a hundred years ago before its boom Detroit MI Since its founding Detroit has been a place of perpetual flames Three times the city has suffered race riots and three times the city has burned to the ground The city s flag acknowledges as much We hope for better things it shall rise from the ashes Charlie LeDuff

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72 Detroit s industrial ruins are like crumbling Rome in an 18th century etching P J O Rourke Detroit MI

73 Harry D Hutchins Intermediate School

74 Detroit MI

75 St Aubin Street and Gratiot Avenue

76 Detroit MI

77 Harry D Hutchins Intermediate School Library

78 I was born and raised here on the East Side It s home it s home I would never leave I think everyone who s leaving is fools Detroit is coming back Regardless of what people say about Detroit I love it I went to the penitentiary and everything I started a gang called the Earl Flees and then one called the Bishops back in the 70 s and we used to ransack the downtown That was in 1977 and I got out in 2004 I am never touching a gun again this is what I do now sell newpapers I think to me The Flag is a symbol to remind me where I come from and why I wanna stay here Detroit MI

79 East Vernor Street and Gratiot Avenue

80 Detroit MI

81 St Christopher House Library

82 Detroit MI

83 Hill of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church

84 Detroit MI

85 St Christopher House Library

86 Detroit MI

87 The Heidelberg Project

88 Detroit is largely composed today of seemingly endless square miles of low density failure Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities Detroit MI

89 Fisher Body Plant 21

90 Detroit MI

91 The Heidelberg Project

92 Detroit MI

93 Harry D Hutchins Intermediate School

94 Detroit MI

95 Hill of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church

96 Detroit is an unlimited canvas for political theatre Detroit MI

97 Harry D Hutchins Intermediate School

98 Detroit MI

99 Fisher Body Plant 21

100 Detroit MI

101 The Heidelberg Project

102 What s going on right now in the government is really just unbelievable and I m just gonna wait it out Detroit MI

103 The Henry Ford Museum Montgomery Bus 2857 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on this bus on December 5th 1955

104 Detroit MI

105 Lothrop Street and La Salle Boulevard

106 Detroit MI

107 The Heidelberg Project

108 Detroit MI

109 Hill of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church

110 Detroit MI

111 Fisher Body Plant 21

112 Detroit MI

113 The Heidelberg Project

114 Detroit MI

115 Fisher Body Plant 21

116 Detroit MI

117 The Heidelberg Project

118 Detroit MI

119 Harry D Hutchins Intermediate School

120 I hold my allegiance to the Stars and Stripes next to my allegiance to God alone From A Klansman s Creed on facing page Detroit MI

121 The Henry Ford Museum

122 In Detroit in July of 1967 what happened was no less than a guerrilla uprising The Second American Revolution Jeffrey Eugenides Detroit MI

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124 Las Vegas Las Vegas NV Plopped in the middle of the desert Las Vegas is a shining metropolis popularly known as Sin City From the moment someone steps off the plane to going into stores hotels and casinos people are constantly lured into the mesmerizing lights sounds and attractions Money is thrown lost and wasted in a city that is unlike any other place in America Las Vegas is a drinking and gambling hub that casts no judgment on what is healthy or unhealthy To some the city is an adult Disney World and to others an unarguable quagmire of evil and lust Las Vegas was and is a hard town that will make you pay for your inability to restrain your desires If you have a weakness Las Vegas will punish you Hal Rothman Neon Metropolis

125 Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign

126 Trump s puttin us back on our feet Las Vegas NV

127 The Venetian Casino

128 Everyone in the country is basically waiting right now to see what Trump will do With every presidency my ideas about the government shift I am a businessman so I am very cautious to trust Las Vegas NV

129 The Venetian Casino

130 Las Vegas NV

131 Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign

132 The reason you should go to Las Vegas is because for only the second time the second time ever they have rebuilt Sodom and Gomorrah It s back And you have the opportunity to see it before it turns to salt Lewis Black Las Vegas NV

133 The Venetian Casino

134 Las Vegas NV

135 Caesars Palace Casino

136 Las Vegas NV

137 Caesars Palace Casino

138 Las Vegas NV

139 Las Vegas Boulevard

140 I don t love Mr Trump but I did vote for him I think it s important that we try to preserve rights we should have like being able to carry arms and free will and such That s what I think Las Vegas NV

141 The Venetian Casino

142 Los Angeles Los Angeles CA Vast and diverse The City of Angels is 503 square miles that span physically and metaphorically across desert to Tinseltown It is a city born of immigrants from across the country and around the globe In fact and fiction to many Los Angeles is a dream factory The dreams come together in a melting pot of diverse neighborhoods which like The American Dream have many variations Los Angeles is a microcosm of the United States If L A falls the country falls Ice T

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144 Los Angeles CA

145 Venice Beach

146 America is opportunity We are not the land of the great and will not be the land of the great We re scared to death at our airports we think something terrible is gonna happen so we let them take our shoes off but that s not the America that should be or has been Los Angeles CA The Flag is a piece of cloth and a symbol but wow it s so much more

147 Venice Beach

148 It s almost like the country has been rocked asleep the last 15 or 16 years and Los Angeles CA kept in the dark and all of a sudden the country is waking up It was like we were going through a situation where the country was afraid and it seems like the more we were kept in fear the easier it was to keep people under control and there s a few people that can break out of that trance and look around and wonder what s going on and some people were quickly rocked back to sleep while some others stay awake I think that you look at January the 21st when the people were in the streets in all these different cities and it represents an awakening I think America is finding itself to struggle in finding out what our identity is because you see that backlash against immigrants but at the same time you look at The Statue of Liberty in New York that s saying bring us your huddled masses yearning to breathe free and you have to ask which one speaks true of America the words on The Statue of Liberty or the words coming out of Trump and his followers and how they feel about immigration I look at the flag and it signifies to me what America could be if people were truly united if it was truly The United States if it was truly that we could look at each other and see our humanity no matter what culture you came from and recognize that person as an American and whatever qualities that culture brings to the country is what collectively makes this country awesome

149 Santa Monica

150 Los Angeles CA

151 Hollywood Boulevard

152 Los Angeles CA

153 Santa Monica

154 I don t like Donald Trump and neither do my parents I just like skating basically I come here with my uncle and a lot of guys here look at me like I can t do stuff but then I do and it s cool because I kind of prove them wrong you know Los Angeles CA

155 Venice Beach

156 Los Angeles CA

157 Santa Monica

158 I think we sold the country out to foreign countries We re no longer American owned The news is printing a bunch of bullshit which is of no interest to us What does The American Flag mean to you Los Angeles CA Nothing I served my country for it to be a piece of rag The politicans have become patriots for fucking money for corporations not for us I didn t fight for this country I fought for corporations to pay for people s property

159 Venice Beach

160 Los Angeles CA

161 Santa Monica

162 I m a Vietnam vet and the presidency petrifies me I m scared Los Angeles CA to death for the future of the world not just America I am petrified for the world I do not know what that gentleman will do and I don t think anyone else can predict what he ll do either Considering I m a vet The American Flag means everything to me and I do believe in protecting our country Our flag is very important and we shouldn t be burning it and stepping on it

163 Hollywood Boulevard

164 Los Angeles CA

165 Venice Beach

166 Los Angeles CA

167 Santa Monica

168 Los Angeles CA

169 Santa Monica Pier

170 I think Trump has reignited the American people to finally stand up Los Angeles CA and be accounted for where before we have all been sort of lethargic and been watching things go on and now we re saying you know we can t just watch anymore To me the country means freedom of speech freedom of the press freedom in general and of course there s a lot of things that need to change Aside from the original 13 Colonies and the 50 States The Flag means the pride of being what is a great idea

171 Venice Beach

172 Los Angeles CA

173 Venice Beach

174 Los Angeles CA

175 Santa Monica Pier

176 Los Angeles CA

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178 America is in a rut I m just trying my best to get people walking along here to have a smile and maybe make a few bucks for myself I m just trying to help Los Angeles CA

179 Santa Monica Pier

180 Los Angeles CA

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182 I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one Nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all

183 2017