Enraged in Tennessee, Tickled in Oklahoma

Maggie says:
Finally pulled back into town last night, after an interesting two-day NC-to-NM drive across I-40. Two highlights from the road:

• Confederate wake-up call. Somewhere between Knoxville and Nashville, a huge Confederate flag is flying high for all I-40 passengers to see. On the mountains overlooking the interstate, some nice family decided to install an indestructible steel flagpole on their back lot line, which just happens to overlook an interstate with thousands of travelers on it each day. I can't overstate the enormity of the Confederate flag; it's literally the largest flag I've ever seen, this shock of red and blue against the green trees. When we passed it, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. My breath was just knocked out. The inevitable conversation ensued: what are the limits to free speech in situations like this, with a symbol so damaging and hurtful to so many people? My co-traveler maintained that I should support their right to fly that flag as much as my right to have my anti-W sticker on my bumper. I hear that, and I know in my head it's true, but my heart still says that someone should firebomb that house. And you all thought I was so nice...
  

• Tickled red, white, and blue. On an entirely different note, I discovered just how patriotic sex toys can be in Henrietta, Oklahoma the next day. The report from the men's room in a tiny gas station goes like this: next to the condom machine, there was another machine offering "French Ticklers" for $.75. Here's how the machine has been updated to respond to our country's admirable War on Terror:

The French Freedom Tickler

"Tickle her fancy the Patriotic Way!"

75 cents
(not to be substituted for a condom)

Gotta love our country. Gotta love road trips. It's good to be back.